No October listings surge except in Hobart and Adelaide

The traditional mid-spring surge in property listings didn’t happen this year in Melbourne, with October listings increasing only 3.3% from September.

Melbourne’s listings increased from 49,613 to 51,265 in October, according to a report from property research group SQM Research.

In Sydney the number of listings increased by a muted 2% (to 35,682), and listings were up just 0.4% across Australia.

Listings were down in three capital cities, with Brisbane down 3.4% to 30,249, Perth down 2.5% to 20,000 and Darwin down 2% to 1583.

Perth was the only city to report a drop in annualised listings from October 2010.

“This might actually be the peak in stock levels for this cycle,” SQM managing director Louis Christopher says.

“I note that Perth is now recording falling listings and Brisbane is now recording signs of stock numbers peaking.

“I suspect Sydney may record a peak this month as well.”

“The Melbourne results are deeply concerning, particularly in light of the fact that we know there is still much dwelling construction yet to be completed,” Christopher adds, repeating his concerns from September's figures.

Hobart was the only city with significant increases in property listings in Australia and had an increase of 20% over September figures, to 4316 listings.

“That seems to be consistent with some of the house price falls recorded in the September quarter for [Hobart],” Christopher says.

Canberra’s new listed property went up 7.3% in the month to 1,995 and Adelaide's rose 8% to 17,948 in October.

The report did show a 14.5% national increase in October listings from 2010 but this a modest increase when compared with other months this year.

Homes offered for sale climbed to 383,217 in October from 334,575 a year ago, the Sydney-based research group says.