New listings fell in five out of Australia’s eight capital cities in a sign that lockdown stress is dampening Australia’s hot property market.
Sydney’s housing market has been particularly hit as the city rounds out its fourth week under lockdown since Greater Sydney was placed under restrictions on June 26.
Newly released data from Realestate.com.au shows the number of new properties advertised last month in locked-down Sydney fell by 13.3%.
The data also showed that property listings fell in five capital cities in June, with Melbourne down 11.1% in the weeks before it entered Victoria’s fifth lockdown on July 15.
Cameron Kusher, manager of economic research at REA Group said the fall in listings points a shift in the market as demand overtakes supply and an insufficient number of new listings are added to meet demand.
“Last month’s double-digit percentage fall in new listings for sale in Sydney and Melbourne can be partially attributed to COVID-19 lockdowns,” Kusher said.
“While activity in Melbourne has since rebounded, Sydney remains in lockdown and market activity has subsided further,” he said.
And the trend toward fewer listings in Sydney and Melbourne is projected to continue through July.
Currently, lockdowns in three Australian cities; Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, have placed restrictions on real estate activity including hosting open homes and in-person auctions — however the restrictions are not uniform across cities.
In Victoria, open house inspections are not permitted, nor are live auctions, while Greater Sydney is allowing home inspections and auctions to take place under strict guidelines.
An eviction moratorium is also in place in Sydney to protect rental tenants.
While winter traditionally results in quieter market conditions, Louis Christopher, managing director at SQM research said the sharp reduction in auction numbers over the past few weeks was a clear sign of the pandemic’s impact.
In recent months and through the first weeks of lockdown Sydney held an average of 700 to 900 auctions a week.
However last week only a third of the 1073 homes originally slated for auction went ahead, and only 540 property auctions are scheduled for this week.
Christopher said as lockdowns stretched past a month, auction numbers would fall away.
“The average auction campaign is four weeks,” he said.
“No vendor has the confidence to lock in a date with no sign of the lockdown ending. It will be the same again in Melbourne if restrictions go past three weeks.”
Christopher said he expected to see auction numbers slump further over the next few weeks as vendors reschedule or withdraw from the market.
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