Why autumn property listings are on the rise

 Industries like luxury fashion and elite sport are dictated by the seasons, so why not the residential real estate market? Selling homes is considered a science by some in the business who suggest that when you list can have a direct effect on the final price.

Analysis by property portal realestate.com.au’s data group PropTrack reveals there is generally a more profitable time of year to list a home for sale, but ultimately results can vary by region.

The 2021 research isolated the impact of the sale month from other features impacting price and discovered properties which sold in November received the highest average prices. Across Australia, sales in November were almost 6 percent higher than those in January, traditionally the sleepiest month on the real estate calendar. These results also ranked October and December as additionally profitable months.

Spring saturation

The reasoning behind strong spring selling statistics comes down to a mix of human behaviour and mother nature.

Tim Lawless, head of research at property data specialist CoreLogic, says while there is logic to the popularity of spring among sellers it could also just be an established pattern of behaviour Australians have found hard to kick.

“It definitely comes back to sentiment as well as the ability to present a property well. Spring is a time when the weather warms up, people become more active, the grass is greener and flowers start to bloom. So from a property presenting perspective, it’s a logical time to prepare your property for inspections so people can see it in its best possible light,” he says.

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It’s a great theory for houses with gardens, but he admits there is no real reason why apartment listings also ramp up in spring.

“I think it’s probably so deeply ingrained culturally that people don’t necessarily think about some of the logical aspects, because selling a unit wouldn’t be much different from season to season,” he says.

While this boom in the property calendar is often referred to as “spring selling season” Lawless says it could probably be more accurately be described as the “spring listing season”.

“We actually see the number of sales is equally as strong around March as it is in November, which are sort of both seasonal peaks in sales activity” he says. “But for listings, it’s really clear that after winter there’s normally a solid ramp up in the number of newly-listed properties coming onto the market.”

Understanding the real estate calendar

While spring is an active time of year in property, the rest of the calendar is marked by milestones which can make or break the success of a sale. School breaks, long weekends and even major sporting events should be taken into account when a home’s marketing campaign is being created.

“School holidays are relevant, but probably what’s more important would be long weekends, like Easter, or grand final weekends. The most obvious one is the Christmas period when pretty much everything shuts down,” Lawless says. “If you think about the property process, a lot of people need to be around to make a transaction happen. 

“You need buyers and sellers obviously, but also you need the agent, the conveyancer, building inspectors and those individuals or professions may not be operating due to holidays.”

The real estate calendar had its first real shake up in a generation during the pandemic as potential buyers couldn’t leave on holiday or even view interstate homes. 

Auctions moved online, property professionals worked from home and an unprecedented number of buyers bought site unseen. 

As a result, some of those old seasonal selling tropes went out the window.

Bucking the seasonal trend for buyers

Bianca Denham, head of performance at the Ray White Group said bucking the seasonal listing trends could be a valuable move for sellers.

“Even pre pandemic we would train our agents not to fall into the trap of focussing on spring time,” Denham says. 

“Because if sellers have been institutionalised — for lack of a better word — that spring is the best time to sell, then what it creates is actually more competition among listings.”

While there are more properties for sale, that doesn’t necessarily translate into more buyers, she says. 

“Buyers don’t become buyers just because the daffodils are in bloom, they become buyers because something has happened in their life; they’ve got that promotion, finally saved the deposit, or they have a baby on the way,” she says. “Buyers become buyers for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with the time of year.” 

Alternatively, some agents are testing the water by working against old school traditions. 

“We’re seeing more agents embracing the downtime of summer as an opportunity to sell,” Denham says. “If you look back to a pre pandemic so-called ‘normal’ market then you would have seen it go to sleep over Christmas and January. 

“We’ve found that any agent who makes the concerted effort to list over Christmas is rewarded because there are inspections and they do get offers.” 

She added that vendors who tap into holiday periods could be rewarded with more buyer eyeballs on their listing.

“When people step out of their everyday and go on a break, that’s when they can start dreaming because they’ve got time on their hands. It’s one of our nation’s most-loved pastimes — browsing on real estate portals. We love it even if we’re not actively buying. 

“Not everyone goes away, and some people come from the country to the city, or vice versa, and they start looking at local real estate wherever they go.”

Lawless agrees that savvy sellers should consider just how saturated the market can get at certain periods.

“It’s definitely a factor in decision making. It’s good to know how much competition there’s going to be, or lack thereof,” he says. “So maybe going counter cyclical is a good idea by listing in winter when there’s not as many listings to come up against.”

In the end, do what works for you, he says.

“Your best option is to buy or sell when the timing is right for you rather than trying to time it with the seasons or trying to buy property at the bottom and sell at the top.”