Bronte Manuel's Adelaide market update for June

The effect of relatively low stock levels, combined with healthy buyer interest, continues to generate strong property sales results in South Australia.

Feedback from our sales partners in the field suggests that some vendors are more hesitant to list their properties because of perceived uncertainty surrounding the financial ramifications of COVID-19.

This is supported by data released recently by property market analyst Core Logic.

While Core Logic data for June showed a mild bounce-back in new listings in Adelaide compared with previous months, volumes are still down 14.8 per cent on the equivalent period last year.

Total listings continue to trend down, too, as sales activity has more than offset any rise in new listings.

In Adelaide, total listing levels have dropped 19.8 per cent year-on-year. Nationally, total listings are down 17 per cent.

{"type":"Link","id":"3szyfHnBU7IqmyhrFRn8ZG","numimg":0}{"type":"Link","id":"6QVWfJOWrc8H3Wm0MsuXLE","numimg":0}

However, consumer sentiment appears to be returning to pre-COVID levels, with more people becoming confident in purchasing property.

While sales volumes in Adelaide dropped 9.5 per cent from March to April, they returned to positive territory with a mild 1.5 per cent jump from April to June.

This has created potential for a scenario where demand could outweigh supply, which in turn creates even stronger competition among buyers.

On average, Adelaide homes are selling more quickly, too, with the median days on market for homes here reducing to 42 in June, compared with 49 days at the same time last year.

While dwelling values during the coronavirus pandemic have fluctuated dramatically in other capital cities, the Adelaide market has held typically firm.

According to Core Logic data, dwelling values here fell by just 0.2 per cent in June. They have still grown by 0.7 per cent in the last quarter, 2 per cent in the past year and currently sit only 0.2 per cent below the record high of May 2020.

{"type":"Link","id":"2E8Oa2rDHALp5PcVmD4uzj","numimg":0}

Recent Toop&Toop sales figure certainly point to an increase in buyer activity - and a reduction in stock levels.

Our team sold an average of more than two properties a day in June and of the 2000-plus groups who attended property viewings last month, 32 per cent of them were new to the market.

We’d usually expect that figure to sit at around 10 per cent.

Our homes were viewed more than 5.1 million times on realestate.com.au in June, yielding almost 7000 individual enquiries.

There were almost 110,000 virtual inspections of properties on toop.com.au, while buyers spent 135 hours using our industry-leading ToopCreate tools to further explore our listings. Not surprisingly, usage of our digital tools spiked when open inspections and auctions were temporarily banned but their popularity remains at peak levels, despite the easing of restrictions.

Put simply, there are plenty of eager buyers looking for properties in Adelaide, but stock levels don’t match demand.

Winter has traditionally been considered a less-active period for real estate but there is powerful evidence to support the theory that this is an excellent time for sellers to list their property.

It is not unreasonable to suggest that those who choose to wait until spring may encounter increased competition, with the potential for an influx of new stock.

Bronte Manuel