Revealed: 20 most undersupplied housing markets

New research from HOOD.ai revealed the most undersupplied housing markets in Australia.

The list consists of 20 markets — half of which are in New South Wales — where inventory levels are “severely” low.

Inventory level is measured as the amount of time it would take to sell all houses in a particular suburb if houses kept selling at the current rate and no more were added to the market.

All suburbs in the list have an inventory level of under one month, with 13 suburbs actually reporting a decline in listings over the past year.

Meanwhile, 14 of these suburbs are tightly held, with stock turnover levels at 4.8% or less.

Stock turnover refers to the estimated share of houses in a suburb that sold over the previous year.

HOOD.ai founder and CEO Tommy Fraser said buyers in these suburbs are struggling as more property owners choose to hold on to their properties for longer while there are little to no new supply being added to the market.

“Buyers desperately need new stock to come onto the market in all these suburbs, because, right now, they’re in a terrible bind — when a house comes onto the market, do they offer a fair price and risk missing out? Or do they do whatever it takes to win the property but overpay?” he said.

Mr Fraser said the tight conditions in these markets have resulted in double-digit gains in median prices over the past year.

“Part of the reason Australia has been experiencing a property boom is because stock levels have been low, which has forced buyers to compete harder and bid up prices,” he said.

“It would be great to return to a balanced market, where owners enjoy reasonable capital growth and buyers have a reasonable chance of finding a property in their chosen suburb — for that to happen, these 20 suburbs need to see a significant increase in new listings.”