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Although population growth is on the up and high levels of new construction have been recorded, housing turnover is still low, CoreLogic’s latest Property Pulse has found.
Over the last 12 months to September 2017, only 5 per cent of Australia’s housing stock was transacted, the lowest recorded proportion of stock turnover since April 2012, which recorded the historic low of 4.9 per cent.
In comparison with the last nine years of all available data, the average transactions were at 5.5 per cent.
Throughout the capital cities, the transaction proportion over the last year was at 4.7 per cent, a new record low, compared with the average of 5.6 per cent.
Throughout each capital city and regional market, a number of historic and record lows were recorded over the last year:
New South Wales
Sydney recorded a historic low of 4.7 per cent of housing stock transactions, while regional NSW was at 5.9 per cent, with both regions having a slowdown on their turnover.
Victoria
Melbourne’s housing stock turnover was also at a historic low of 4.4 per cent, and regional Victoria’s last year stood at 4.9 per cent. There’s a fall in turnover for both markets.
Queensland
Unlike the typically high performers of Sydney and Melbourne, both Brisbane and regional Queensland markets were safely above record lows, both at 5.8 per cent. The Brisbane turnover was just below average turnover proportions, at 5.9 per cent, and regional Queensland was holding at average levels.
South Australia
The main South Australian markets were holding as what CoreLogic referred to as steady at 5.7 per cent and 5.8 per cent, respectively, slightly above long-term average levels.
Western Australia
Record lows were recorded for Perth at 3.6 per cent, while regional Western Australia was at 4.2 per cent, a recovery from record lows.
Tasmania
Both main markets in Tasmania were strong compared with long-term averages, with 5.9 per cent of stock in Hobart compared with 5.4 per cent, and 6.1 per cent of stock proportion in regional Tasmania compared with 5.3 per cent.
Northern Territory
With falling dwelling values, housing stock turnovers also fell, with 4.2 per cent of housing stock transactions for Darwin and 4.7 per cent of housing stock in regional Northern Territory.
Australian Capital Territory
Canberra joined Sydney and Melbourne for recording a historic low, with 4.8 per cent of housing stock transactions.
According to Cameron Kusher, head of research at CoreLogic RP Data, these percentages were “stark” despite the fact that the number of houses sold in Australia was small.
“A big driver of the low level of turnover over the past year has been relatively low levels of stock for sale, particularly in our largest capital cities and the high costs associated with stamp duty when buying a property,” the researcher said.
“The impost of stamp duty discourages turnover as we have recently seen with the removal of stamp duty for first time buyers under certain price thresholds in NSW and Vic. Once removed, there has been a surge in housing finance commitments by first home buyers.
“The final consideration for the low turnover is the high cost of housing in Australia. Because the cost is high, it is a significant consideration for households as whether or not to purchase a property.”
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