Stock on market property trends

Month to month figures can be a little confusing when it comes to the stock on the market.

However, the annual figures tend to tell a fair story:

Source: SQM

The tight markets are Sydney, Perth and Darwin. The two latter cities have already shown strong price growth and this data suggests that might continue for some time. Sydney's growth has been relatively moderate to date, and moderate growth may continue there too.

Louis Christopher of SQM said:

"While I laugh at the notion that house prices are falling as stated by only one of my competitors, it is clear that in some metropolitan locations, the market has continued to fall despite the interest rate cuts. As for the strongest cities out there – they are by far Sydney, Perth and Darwin, though I note from our recent survey earlier this week that we now expect Perth to slow down later this year.”

Meanwhile, RP Data reports the fastest selling cities as being:

"Across most capital cities, the current average time on market is lower than at the same time last year.  In fact, the time on market is lower across each capital city except for Brisbane and Hobart.

Time on market for capital cities:

• Sydney - 35 days
• Melbourne - 38 days
• Canberra - 49 days
• Darwin - 52 days
• Perth - 52 days
• Brisbane – 72 days
• Adelaide – 68 days
• Hobart  - 110 days"

There may be some trickier times ahead for Canberra as new plots are released. 

The Sydney market looks very strong.

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It will be a week day for stocks in Australia after US stocks (Dow) fell by 0.75% and the S&P 500 Index also sank lower for a second day, after the Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said he sees no need to expand monetary stimulus immediately.

This is precisely the distorting effect on investment markets of QE that I have been discussing. Good news can be bad news and vice-versa. The outcome over time is likely to be stock markets flying when easing is in place and sharp corrections when it is taken away. Strange world we live in.

More lending finance data to come from the ABS - watch this space...