Urbis’ Apartment Essentials details sales and supply data from five markets – Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and the Gold Coast – across the country, revealing the quarterly wins and losses in the many new apartment markets.
With new stock coming in and sales experiencing speed bumps, national apartment sales, as a percentage of available stock surveyed, dropped to a new low of 7.7% in quarter four.
Clinton Ostwald, Director at Urbis, commented, “We’ve seen fluctuating results around the country. In many markets, buyers are soaking up the existing completed stock as the brakes have been put on new launches. While in other markets, new projects are still being launched to market, replenishing the supply and leading to steady sales.”
“In many markets, buyers are soaking up the existing completed stock as the brakes have been put on new launches.
Sales rates have been dropping for the last two years, so it’s no surprise that 2018’s results were lacklustre in comparison to 2017. In Sydney, surveyed sold stock averaged 21% of available supply throughout each quarter in 2017, whereas this dropped to 5.5% in 2018.
Melbourne and the Gold Coast followed in this same pattern with sales, as a percentage of available stock, dropping by around 4% over the same period. Brisbane and Perth, the markets that have had the least new stock enter the market, have reversed this trend and have seen slight increases in 2018.
It’s not the stock crisis we imagined one year ago: lower levels of new stock entering the market has continued to replenish the slow sales throughout 2018, with 24,000 new apartments launching throughout the year.
The two biggest markets saw the most impressive figures; Melbourne blitzed all other markets with over 11,244 new apartments entering the market in 2018, while Sydney claimed second seed in the country with 4,810 new apartment launches.
“Apartment approvals are at their lowest in the history of Urbis’ Apartment Essentials, sitting at 4,576 in quarter four 2018.
There was a surprising standstill in Brisbane with no new launches in the quarter, however the first half of 2019 will likely bring over 1,000 new apartment launches Queensland’s capital.
Mr Ostwald said, “Apartment approvals are at their lowest in the history of Urbis’ Apartment Essentials, sitting at 4,576 in quarter four 2018. With new design specifications and planning requirements in some jurisdictions, we’re likely to see this number continue to fall in 2019.
“We need to keep an eye on supply levels as ongoing population growth, particularly on the east coast, will quickly take up available supply. This may result in a housing supply shortage in the next 12 to 18 months as we are also seeing fewer completions in the greenfield house and land market.”
It truly was a year for owner occupiers, with 46% of total sales for 2018 attributed to this buyer type. Interstate investors leapt up by 10% in 2018, accounting for 19% of sales. Local state investors, who previously accounted for 30% of the market in 2017, dropped down to 17% in 2018, in line with foreign investors.
7.7% of the surveyed available stock was sold in the December quarter across the five markets:
National weighted average sale price recorded at $705,226 for Q4
The most popular product type was two-bedroom, two-bathroom product at 47% of total sales. Across the cities the highest selling product types were:
25% of actively selling apartments are in presales, 49% are under construction and 26% are recently built.
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