Discounts required to secure residential property sales peaked in mid to late 2011: APM chill chart

By Cassidy Knowlton
Friday, 06 July 2012

The amount of vendor discounting required to secure residential property sales peaked mid- to late last year, a "chill chart" released by Australian Property Monitors shows.

In Sydney, the average discount required in June 2012 was 6.7%, compared with 7.1% in August 2011. However, this is still higher than the average discount Sydney vendors had to offer in June 2010, which was 5.9%.

Melbourne discounting peaked in November 2011 at 8.1%, whereas in June 2012 Melbourne vendors offered discounts of 6.9% off initial price hopes to secure sales. Melbourne's average discount was 5.4% in June 2010.

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The required discounting for Brisbane property hovered around 10.7% from June to September 2011, with the average discount in June 2012 at 8.4%.

Adelaide vendors offered an average discount of 8.6% in September 2011, but in June 2012 that had fallen to 7.7%. However, the previous month the average discount required was 8.1% in Adelaide, not at its 2011 peak but still in the "red zone", according to APM.

Perth vendors offered discounts as deep as 10.6% in August 2011, but June 2012's average discount for the WA capital was 7.3%. This is still up on the 6.4% average discount in June 2010.

The average discount required in Canberra hit a peak of 6% in June 2011 and was not far off that in June 2012, at 5.5%. However, these "red" percentages for Canberra are still at or below "green" figures for other capitals, as Canberra vendors in general do not have to sweeten the deal as much as those in other cities.

Darwin's average discount for dwelling sales hit 10% in June 2011 and was at a much lower 5.8% in June 2012. This is only marginally up from the 5.4% average discount in June 2010.

Hobart's average discount has crept up in recent months, to be at 10.3% in June 2012. This is not as high as the 10.8% average discount in August 2011, but higher than the 8.4% and 8.5% in some months between August last year and June this year. In June 2010 the average vendor discount in Hobart was 6.6%.