If there is further proof that the market has already started slowing down, it would be the satisfaction among property sellers over the first three months of 2022.
RateMyAgent’s latest report showed a decrease in property seller happiness to 59% over the first quarter of the year, down by four percentage points from the all-time high of 63% recorded in December 2021.
RateMyAgent CEO Michael Davey said this was the first drop in seller satisfaction since the onset of the pandemic and indicates the cooling of the property market.
“There is no denying the market has cooled significantly, and we aren’t seeing that same high volume of above-expectation sale prices that we saw in the second half of 2021,” he said.
“This is predominantly due to the fact that the market couldn’t sustain its record high forever, and we anticipate this softening will continue throughout the middle of the year.”
The drop in satisfaction was apparent across the country, with every market except South Australia reporting lower happiness levels compared to the last quarter of 2021.
Satisfaction about sale prices declined in both metro and regional markets, but the latter still registered higher satisfaction level than the former.
Of all states and territories, Tasmania reported the highest satisfaction levels among sellers at 71%, followed by South Australia’s 68%.
Interestingly, Queensland continued to dominate the bigger states of New South Wales and Victoria in terms of seller satisfaction.
The state climbed to the third spot from the ranking after spending some time in fifth place behind these two.
Among regional markets, the happiest investors are in North-West Tasmania, where satisfaction levels were at 79%. This solidifies the robust two-year surge in vendor satisfaction in Tasmania.
Five of the 10 happiest regions for happy sellers are in Tasmania.
The 10 markets that reported the highest share of satisfied sellers are the following:
- North-West Tasmania
- South-East Tasmania
- Metropolitan Adelaide
- Launceston
- Central Tasmania
- North-Western New South Wales
- Metropolitan South-East Queensland
- Canberra
- Greater Metropolitan Newcastle and Hunter, Regional South-East Queensland and The Riverina
- Hobart
Mr Davey said both buyers and sellers will undoubtedly be more cautious in their approach to the market, especially given the additional factors that could influence where the market will go next: interest rates and the federal election.
“The upcoming election and interest rate increases have heightened the national sense of uncertainty and may see many Australians reluctant to purchase a home – driving demand down, along with property prices,” he said.
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Photo by @arash_payam on Unsplash
