November has marked the highest recorded number of new listings in 7 years in the Australian property market. The increased supply of new listings will give buyers more options and help ease some of the buyer tension in the property market, albeit properties will still be expected to sell very quickly compared to “normal” selling timeframes.
As COVID-19 restrictions started to ease, sellers gained more confidence in the market and have made up for lost time during the lockdown period. As a result, new property listings increased by 12.1%, the highest it has ever been since 2014 (realestate.com.au).
Despite the recent surge in new listings, the overall number of properties for sale still remains lower when compared to pre-pandemic levels. The total number of listings remained 20% lower than pre-pandemic levels nationally and nearly 40% less in regional areas.
So, what can we expect in 2022?
Based on the information we have available now, our opinion is that the market will remain strong and competitive but conditions will be noticeably better for buyers as competition starts to ease with new supply coming into the market.
Buyers will be able to negotiate on compromised properties, affected by negative attributes such as poor locations, busy roads or bad floorplans etc, but they will still have to fight for the quality properties.
While many economists are predicting the property price growth to slow down in 2022 and dip in 2023, we believe that while interest rates remain low, we can expect boom conditions to continue, albeit at a slower pace.
Buyer fatigue will see buyer demand soften over December and January, while people are focused on Christmas and family holidays, but this could be the perfect time to do a little Christmas shopping for your dream home or investment while the conditions are so good.
Only 10 more sleeps to Christmas!
