Taylor Troeth, Property Journalist
Updated 18 Apr 2024, 9:25am
First published 18 Apr 2024, 5:00am
Sydney’s hopeful home seekers have more choice than a year ago as seller confidence continues to grow.
New PropTrack data has revealed Sydney’s selling activity dropped in March, but stock levels remain higher than the same month last year.
This was despite a 16.5 per cent month-on-month decrease in new listings on realestate.com.au.
PropTrack economist Anne Flaherty said the drop from February was unsurprising with the earlier timing of Easter.
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Buyer and seller confidence was improving in Sydney, with more total listings on the market. Picture by Max Mason-Hubers
“We know that the weeks leading up to Easter are usually the busiest of the year for putting a property up for sale.”
She said this kick started the pre-Easter selling period earlier than usual, which contributed to February seeing the highest number of new listings in over a decade.
“A lot of people chose to go on holiday that time of year not just with the public holidays but school holidays too, so selling activity falls away very significantly.”
Hopeful Sydney home seekers have more choice than a year ago. Picture: Tom Parrish
Despite the drop, Sydney was the only market across the country that had more new listings in March compared to one year ago.
“It is quite interesting and actually a pretty good time to be a buyer in Sydney,” Ms Flaherty said.
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New listings on realestate.com.au were 1.3 per cent higher than March 2023, while total listings were 8.8 per cent higher year-on-year.
“The fact that we have a year-on-year rise even though Easter occurred earlier than last year shows that a lot more people are in the market than a year ago,” she said.
PropTrack economist Anne Flaherty said the new listings report showed it was a good time to be a buyer in Sydney and regional NSW.
“We have seen a recovery in confidence in buyers and sellers and often those go hand and hand because if someone is selling they are often looking to buy as well,” she said.
In regional NSW, selling activity slowed in March, with 4.6 per cent fewer new listings from February and a decrease of 3.4 per cent new listings from March 2023.
“We have definitely seen the (regional NSW) market cool compared to two years ago when there was very high competition. The fact that we saw a relatively modest decline in new listing shows it’s a good time to be a buyer in regional NSW,” Ms Flaherty said.
Total listings in regional NSW had improved 1 per cent month-on-month and 14.1 per cent compared to March 2023.
As interest rates have settled, buyer and seller confidence has increased according to PropTrack economist Anne Flaherty. Picture: Gaye Gerard
“The fact that the year-on-year rise is so much higher means that the properties hitting the market aren’t selling as rapidly they were a year ago.”
Ms Flaherty said it was encouraging to see the yearly increases in both regional NSW and Sydney, considering the big decline experienced last year.
“People are very confident and less hesitant to buy, they have more of an idea that their mortgage repayments are going to be okay which is helping that recovery,” she said.
“It will be interesting to see how it pans out for the remainder of the year, if we are going to see interest rates come down what impact that will have on the property market.”
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