Distressed property sales are falling across Australia, despite cost pressures

The number of people putting their homes on the market because they can’t afford their mortgage repayments is actually falling, despite cost pressures from rising interest rates and inflation, the latest data reveals.

The surprise figures, contained in a Domain report that charted the numbers of distressed listings in each capital city from January 2021 to June 2023, show widespread declines, although some suburbs are still hurting.

In Sydney, only 3.6 per cent of listings were a result of financial pressures in June 2023, compared to the December 2022 high of 5.2 per cent. 

In Melbourne it was 1.7 per cent as against 2.3 per cent six months ago, in Brisbane 4.6 per cent, down from 7.1 per cent, and in Canberra, down to 1.1 per cent from 1.7 per cent.

In Hobart, the figure was 0.9 per cent, down from its high of 1.2 per cent in April 2023, and in Darwin, 5.4 per cent, down from 7.3 per cent in March 2023.

Adelaide’s distressed listings increased slightly between May to June – from 1.1 per cent to 1.2 per cent – but the figure is still down from its peak level of distressed listings (1.3 per cent) late last year.

Within those distressed property sales, however, Queensland is doing it the toughest – largely because of all the Sydneysiders and Melburnians who flooded to the state during and post-COVID to buy holiday homes and investments.

Slugged by 13 months of interest-rate rises, and with rents still not high enough to compensate, many are now trying to offload their houses and apartments before they lose any more money.

New Domain data has found that eight of the 10 regions in the country with the most distressed listings are in Queensland, mostly around Brisbane’s south-east and east, and on the Gold Coast.

Only two regions in other states made it into that dismal top 10: Barkly in the Northern Territory, with its main town, Tennant Creek, at number one, and Fairfield in Sydney’s west in ninth place.

In Barkly, the Domain report found, 15.6 per cent of listings in June 2023 were by distressed sellers – people who want to sell properties urgently usually because of financial pressures. That’s a figure 2.4 per cent up on the past year.

Most of those were likely to be investors, said Jo-Anne Pulsford of Nutrien Harcourts Alice Springs, who sells in Tennant Creek, because a huge chunk of the homes in Tennant Creek had owners who leased properties to Territory government employees, like police officers, corrections officials and health and education workers.

The next seven places on the table are all in Queensland, with Brisbane’s Sunnybank leading the way with distressed listings at 13 per cent, although that figure was at the same level last year.

During the pandemic, many owners of properties closer to the city, such as in Camp Hill and Norman Park, also sold to buyers from Sydney and Melbourne and then moved to more expensive homes on the bayside for lifestyle and to work from home.

Other hard-hit areas include Mudgeeraba-Tallebudgera on the Gold Coast, where 11.9 per cent of listings are distressed, the Gold Coast Hinterland, where the proportion of distressed listings has risen 5 per cent over the year to 11.7 per cent, and Southport, at 11.6 per cent.

In Sydney’s Fairfield, 10.8 per cent of listings are classed as distressed. Most of those affected were owner-occupiers and first-home buyers who were often on low wages, said Bassam Hendy of McGrath Estate Agents Liverpool.

The place most affected in Western Australia is West Pilbara with 10.1 per cent distressed listings. In Victoria, it’s Casey South with 4.6 per cent, in South Australia it’s Charles Sturt at 3.2 per cent, in Tasmania it’s Brighton at 2.8 per cent and, in the ACT, Belconnen at 2.3 per cent. 

Source - domian.com.au