The last burst of 2022

This spring has officially been labelled as one of our most underwhelming spring markets in terms of available stock. The most surprising statistic I’ve seen makes a lot of sense when I correlate it to my coal face experience, but nevertheless, it’s still startling. It’s little wonder that July was the busiest month this year for our office, although December is playing catch up with a the last burst of 2022.

Our winter volumes were larger than our spring volumes in 2022.

Our volumes have been significantly lower than past years’ and the charts below illustrate this well. Vendors have been reluctant to list while they feel that market conditions are not conducive to a good result, and buyers have been biding their time waiting for more stock to choose from. Both listing numbers and sales figures are down this Spring.

We’ve experienced a late ‘last hurrah’ of activity in our final three weeks of trading for the year. The supply/demand imbalance has favoured selected vendors, (primarily those with renovated, family homes on offer). Some who may have been waiting to see what 2023 brings have decided that the price falls aren’t as scary as the media hype would have us believe, and they too have listed, albeit late in the peace.

Now that stock supply is dwindling, and 2022 is almost behind us, family home buyers who are still in the game are finding that competition is a bit tougher than previous months’. The only glimmer of hope for new listings now are sitting on the February page of the 2023 calendar. So, for those who are keen to purchase sooner, they are facing increased demand and easing supply.

Yesterday’s auction at 95 Victoria Street, Brunswick East proved this indeed. This superbly finished three bedroom period house with a north facing rear sold under the hammer for $1.868M, almost $200,000 over reserve.

Six bidders fought it out and sadly we were not the winning bidder. Ordinarily throughout 2022 I would not have anticipated a three bedroom house to attract that many bidders, but the time of year played a large part.

Supply and demand counts for so much, and even in the week that delivered us yet another rate rise, the buyers were out in force on Saturday.

With a week and a half remaining for trade, it will be interesting to see how many buyers try a last burst of 2022 before the big guy in a red suit arrives.