News Corp Australia Network

More homes for sale will take some of the stress out of what has been a hot few years in the Hobart market. Picture: Supplied

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HOBART has done it again.

In recent months, the number of for sale home listings in the southernmost capital city has started to climb — from a tiny number to something much larger.

December continued that trend with Hobart’s total listings reaching a hard-to-fathom — better check that number twice — 90.6 per cent annual growth.

That year-on-year change eclipsed every city market around Australia and every regional market, too.

To give 90.6 per cent context, Sydney’s total grew 0.9 per cent year-on year, Melbourne was up by just 0.2 per cent and Brisbane pushed higher by 17.6 per cent.

Adelaide had 0.6 per cent less total listings, Perth 5.3 per cent less, Darwin 5.8 per cent more and Canberra 19.7 per cent more.

Total listings are up 90 per cent.

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Greater Hobart clearly had a lot of room to grow; there were just over 1100 homes for sale last January, the lowest figure in over a dozen years. SQM Research says the figure is now 2293.

The rest of Tasmania’s results were among the country’s best for regional areas, with 35.7 per cent more total listings YoY, similar to regional Victoria and NSW.

PropTrack’s December Listings Report also revealed that nearly all of the capital cities saw a large year-on-year decline in new listings. Again, Hobart broke that trend, with just 0.4 per cent fewer new listings this year than last.

Report author and PropTrack economist Angus Moore said following the traditional end-of-year break, market activity is expected to pick up sharply in the second half of January.

This is typical once buyers and sellers return in the new year, he said.

PropTrack economist Angus Moore.

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“After a fast start to 2022, conditions and activity slowed in the back half of the year. Home prices continued to decline across the country in December and are now down 4.3 per cent from their peak in early 2022,” Mr Moore said.

“Those price falls, and the slowing in market activity, are on the back of the Reserve Bank of Australia raising interest rates at an extremely brisk pace.

“While selling conditions have clearly softened from where they were in early 2022, and market activity has slowed, the fundamental long-term drivers of demand for housing remain solid.

“Unemployment has been around multi-decade lows for much of 2022 and has continued to drift down.

“Wages growth, while running slower than inflation, has started to pick up.”

Meanwhile, ABS lending figures show loans for the construction or purchase of new homes have fallen significantly.

Housing Industry Association economist Tom Devitt said the latest November data revealed there were only 5057 loans, which was the weakest month since June 2013.

In Tasmania the number of new home loans fell by 7.4 per cent.

The weight of rate hikes has been felt in the construction sector.

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Mr Devitt said this reflects the well broadcast housing downturn, with new loans over the 12 months to November down by 36 per cent.

“Investors and owner-occupiers are retreating from the market,” he said.

“The RBA will not restore the economy to stable growth by putting the building industry through boom-and-bust cycles.”