THIS MONTH IN RAY WHITE NOW
Prices are now firmly on the move everywhere in Australia , having increased by 3.5 per cent since the start of the year . At current rates of growth , house prices will be back to their 2022 peaks within the next two months . In Brisbane , Perth , Adelaide and Darwin , all cities where prices barely fell last year , peak pricing is already back .
Leading the charge in terms of percentage growth are Sydney premium markets . While they fell the most last year , they are accelerating the quickest . In regional markets , a similar trend is occurring with the most expensive markets including Sunshine Coast , Gold Coast and the Illawarra seeing the largest increases this year . While there was a view that house prices nationally would fall a lot , and that regional markets would see a loss of value as COVID restrictions fell away , this hasn ’ t played out .
With the market slowing last year we saw two key trends . Existing listings took longer to sell , leading to an increase in total listings while the number of new listings coming to market fell . While house price growth will eventually lead to new listings increasing , this is yet to occur across the market .
A more positive sign however is that Ray White listing authorities are starting to pick up significantly . Listing authorities are the point at which an agent is signed but the property is yet to be advertised . While falling through April , May saw a dramatic turnaround in conditions . At this point , there will be a lot more choice for buyers in late winter and heading into spring .
Ray White ’ s trading numbers have been steadily increasing since the market downturn began last year . In May , we recorded $ 7.2 billion in revenue , the highest level this financial year and only marginally down from May 2022 . While this in part has been because of increasing market share , it has also been driven by improving market conditions .
Within Australia , Ray White unconditional sales reached $ 5.4 billion in May , only marginally down compared to May last year . We are also starting to see the gap narrow between stock coming in and stock selling , a further sign of an improving market . In addition , our auction data shows increasing bidding activity across Australia , as well as more people coming to market . Average active bidders hit 2.8 in May , the highest level since February 2022 . Adelaide , Brisbane and Sydney are currently seeing the strongest bidding activity , recording more than 3.3 active bidders per auction in May .
This is our first edition of Ray White Now that focuses entirely on our data . All charts within this document are available at a more localised level through our data partner Neoval , as well as through the Ray White Economics team .
Nerida Conisbee Chief Economist Ray White Group
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