For the week ending 25 August 2020, the national asking price rose 0.3% for houses and 0.4% for units, compared to the week prior. Across capital cities, property prices increased by 0.1% for houses and declined by 1.6% for units.

Month on month, the national asking price decreased by 1% for houses and increased by 0.1% for units. Sydney and Brisbane recorded an overall decline while other capital cities recorded mixed results.

According to SQM Research, national residential property listings decreased by 6.3% from 312,680 listings in July to 293,053 listings in August. While all capital cities recorded declines, Melbourne led the pack with a 13.2% decrease over the month. This was followed by Hobart at 9.4% then Canberra at 6.3%.

Year on year, property listings are down 10%. All capital cities recorded a decrease with the exception of Sydney where stock increased by 1.2%. Darwin and Hobart recorded the most significant declines compared to the year prior, at 26.9% and 21.4% respectively.

SQM Research Managing Director Louis Christopher said, “There was quite a large drop in new listings for the month, predominantly driven by the shortfall in Melbourne. The Melbourne numbers are quite revealing actually. It is reflective of the near entire freeze-up of the Melbourne housing market. As the Victorian State Government is heavily reliant on property stamp duty revenues, there must be a significant State revenue collapse occurring.”

“Elsewhere we continue to record falling supply in Australia’s regional areas. Our take on that phenomenon is that demand has boomed for regional real estate as more of our populations look to remote living.”