Prices still flat-lined in Sydney and Melbourne, both down 0.1% for the first three weeks of March, compared to a month-to-date rise of 1.4% for Brisbane-Gold Coast, 1.0% for Adelaide, and 1.0% in Perth.

Corelogic report that there were 3,062 homes taken to auction across the combined capital cities in the week ending 20 March, making it the second busiest auction week of the year.

The previous week saw 2,054 homes taken to auction, with the lower volumes attributed to public holiday long weekends across four of the eight states and territories, while this time last year 2,710 auctions were held.

Our already tight rental markets are being squeezed even further, with vacancy rates falling further in February.

Asking rents are now rising across all capital cities.

With housing supply very fixed in the short term, this rental squeeze is going to get even tighter as we experience a pick-up in population growth from recent international student and skilled visa arrivals, that will lift housing demand, including rentals over coming months.

Our research suggests a bottoming in the rents in inner-city Melbourne over recent months even though rents aren’t growing yet.

Sydney’s inner-city rents began to trend up to around the middle of last year.

Melbourne asking rent are still down 27.8% compared to pre-pandemic levels and are now cheaper than not only Sydney but also Brisbane and Perth.

To help keep you up-to-date with all that’s happening in property, here is my updated weekly analysis of data and charts as of March 21st, 2022 provided by Corelogic, and realestate.com.au.

The number of properties for sale in Australia is still in short supply

Despite the many properties that came onto the market at the end of last year, the supply of properties for sale just can’t keep up with demand.

At the end of last year for every new property coming onto the market for sale in most parts of Australia 1.4 properties were sold.

It’s likely 2022 will see buyers out in force – owner-occupiers, investors, and first home buyers – at a time when available supply struggling to keep up.

And remember that buyers are sellers and sellers are buyers so in most cases each time a property is sold another buyer is out in the market looking for a new home.

The table below shows how the stock of advertised properties is well below year-ago levels across all capital cities.

At the same time “time on market” continues to decline.

These are signs that property values will continue to rise moving forward.

Median property prices

Vendor Metrics

Vendor metrics confirm that despite the increased number of properties being listed for sale we’re in a seller’s market with the number of days to sell the property very low (a sign of the tight supply situation), and vendor discounting (it’s easier for them to sell) at very low levels.

In general, houses are selling better than apartments, but the shortage of good properties on the market is seeing properties selling quickly with minimal discounting.

March 2022 Market Indicator Report

The housing market kicked off the new year strong, and much of that momentum has continued into February according to Proptrack’s March 2022 Housing Market Indicators Report.

hough, some tempering from record-level highs is beginning to emerge across a number of metrics.

The consistent growth in prospective buyer demand has lost steam, which is more evident in New South Wales and Sydney than in other smaller capitals.

Although some measures of demand from prospective buyers are moderating, overall activity levels remain elevated, and demand still remains above-average levels.

Property seekers clearly remain motivated, and buyers are taking advantage of the extra choice available, with sales volumes tracking last year’s historic numbers very closely.

However, demand is beginning to moderate from the extreme levels witnessed in 2021.

Our Rental Markets

Just as the resale market has been rebalancing from the lift in properties on the market, the rental market is tightening further.

Rental vacancy rates in all state capitals have fallen further in January.

Sydney and Melbourne’s rental markets were hit hard when international borders were closed. According to SQM data, Sydney’s rental vacancy rate in February 2020 was 2.9%.

When the pandemic hit, it jumped to 3.9%.

This January, the rental vacancy rate was just 2.1%, the lowest since October 2018. Not surprising then that the trend in asking rents are continuing to rise this year, if at a less eye-popping pace than was the case last year that was boosted by pandemic base effects.

Melbourne’s rental market was much slower to recover, likely reflecting its more locked down status, a larger impact from border closures, and unit development.

After rising from 1.9% when the pandemic hit, Melbourne’s vacancy rate kept rising through 2020, peaking at 4.7% at the end of that year. 

It’s declined since, down to 2.7% by January this year.

Rents now look to be starting to rise again after being flat last year. 

Even asking rents are growing in annual terms in Melbourne’s unit rental market after two years of decline. Rent rises are adding to already evident other sources of inflation.

Rental markets remain very tight in the other capital cities, from as low as just 0.3% in Hobart to a still-tight 0.9% in Darwin.

Brisbane’s vacancy rate is 1.1%, Perth’s 0.6%, Adelaide’s 0.4%,and Canberra’s 0.7%. Industry observers have suggested that a vacancy rate of below 3% is tight, the property vacant between 1-2 weeks a year.

Weekend’s auction clearance rates

Following a relatively quiet auction weekend last week thanks, in part, to long weekends across four of the eight states and territories and the issues with floods in New South Wales and Queensland, this weekend we experienced the second busiest auction week of the year.

Dr. Andrew Wilson of My Housing Market reported Adelaide was once again the stand-out performer with a preliminary auction clearance rate of 89.8% from 111 auctions.

Other preliminary clearance rates (as reported by Dr. Andrew Wilson’s Auction Insider) were:-

· Canberra – 76%

· Brisbane – 70.2%

· Melbourne – 69.9%

· Sydney – 69.6%