PHOTO: The percentage of properties with their prices cut has risen in all capital cities since 2019. Photo: iStock
Property price cutting has nearly doubled and tripled in Australia’s two largest cities, new data shows, signalling a slowing housing market.
More than 13 per cent of property listings in Sydney and 10.7 per cent in Melbourne had their prices discounted in April, according to Domain data.
This was up from 6.7 and 3.7 per cent respectively from April 2019, equating to nearly double the amount of discounts in Sydney and almost three times the amount in Melbourne.
“It’s a good leading indicator of where prices are going to go,” Domain senior research analyst Nicola Powell said.
“When you see an increase in the proportion of listings with a discount, it normally means that you’re going into a softening market.”
All capital cities across the country saw a higher percentage of properties being discounted in April 2020 compared with April 2019.
But the percentage of discounted properties was the highest in March this year as the economy went into a rapid hibernation amid the escalating COVID-19 outbreak.
“March was particularly a turning point, we saw that in other market indicators and the fact that we had the ban on open homes and auctions and the economic shutdown,” Dr Powell said. “The positive thing for April is that percentage has now started to ease.”
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