Tuesday 1 September 2020

Stock levels down 10pc over the year

Stock tightens

Property price falls levelled off in the latter half of August, except in Melbourne, where prices are nearly 5 per cent down from the April peaks, having drifted a little lower over that time. 

Total stock listings levels were 10 per cent lower from a year earlier at 293,053 (down from 325,693 in August 2019), according to SQM Research. 

Melbourne's stock declined sharply by 13 per cent last month due to the lockdown, but there were actually declines in all cities. 


Year-on-year stock levels have declined significantly in most cities, while Melbourne and Sydney were fairly steady.


There's little sign of distressed selling at this stage, so things are not as bad as they may seem in Melbourne, at least from a housing market perspective.

However, the inner city may be something of a ghost town, as more buyers look further afield, while state revenues must be collapsing. 

Across most other cities stock levels are noticeably tighter than a year earlier.