The rise and fall of property sales in Adelaide

NEW figures show Adelaide’s home values are increasing faster than any other capital city, but an industry expert has warned that the number of properties on the market is “dramatically” low.

According to data released by CoreLogic on Monday, Adelaide home values increased by 2.9 per cent for the month, and by 0.5 per cent for the week.

Sydney homes increased 0.8 per cent in the month, and in Melbourne prices decreased by 1.6 per cent. The national average monthly change was 0.1 per cent.

According to Harris Real Estate managing director Phil Harris, the increase bodes well for homeowners.

“I think it is a good sign if you’re a property owner but you really need to look at a full calendar year to track how a market is travelling,” he said.

“It’s very much reflecting on what stock has gone to market, and how things are travelling in that specific four-week period.”

Adelaide home prices have increased by 4.7 per cent in the past 12 months.

“The forecast for increase was 3.5 per cent, so it is outperforming what we’d originally expected it to be for the 12-month period,” Mr Harris said.

Adelaide’s median house price is $430,000, and the unit median price is $311,000.

Low stock levels are helping drive up prices, Mr Harris he said.

“If you speak with any agent at the moment, it’s just the lack of stock in the marketplace, it is quite dramatic, and buyers are finding it quite frustrating,” he said.

The number of new listings on the market is down 2.8 per cent over the year, according to the data.

“It started as a very cold, wet winter, we had the election, and that winter period rolled on.

We were expecting the normal big influx of properties to come to market in spring, but we haven’t seen that this year,” he said.

The slow winter combined with low stock levels means agents are preparing to sell longer into the Christmas holiday period than usual, he said.

“We’re certainly expecting it to be a longer selling period this year; typically speaking the market might close down early to mid December, but we think this year there is definitely an appetite for people to buy property right though.”

Credit: Adelaide home values rising the quickest in Australia, but drop in number of properties for sale