Melbourne’s property listing numbers are starting to improve as more vendors return to the market in a bid to sell their homes before the end of the year.

Sellers who were sitting on the fence during Melbourne’s property downturn – and early recovery – are now listing their homes hoping that the slightly below-average numbers of homes for sale will help them get a better price.

SQM Research’s Louis Christopher said data revealed new listings, that is houses that have been listed for 30 days or less in any month, were on the rise, pointing to Melbourne’s continuing house price recovery.

“While it’s improved from mid-year, historically speaking new listings are still a bit below average for Melbourne,” Mr Christopher said.

The latest figures for October show Melbourne had 15,689 new listings for the month, only slightly down on the same time last year, when 16,351 homes and units were listed for sale, SQM Research data shows.

That number had vastly improved since the start of the year when Melbourne’s house prices reached the lowest point.

“The data shows that May [with 11,914 new listings] and June [with 9472 new listings] were particularly weaker than normal,” Mr Christopher said.

Months of uncertainty over property-related tax incentives in the lead up to the federal election in May, and tighter lending criteria from banks, in the wake of the financial services royal commission, had seen property prices in Melbourne plummet by 10 per cent from the end of 2017.

Melbourne’s house prices start to rebound in the June quarter, but listings have taken longer to return, as vendors took a wait and see approach.

Some vendors had held out for a better sale price, meaning that although new listings were down, overall listing numbers were higher than usual because houses had stayed on the market longer.

But these longer-term listings were now beginning to sell, Mr Christopher said.

“The overall trend where listings are declining, it’s not because of fewer new listings – it’s because the older stock has been absorbed,” Mr Christopher said.

In October, Melbourne’s total property listings sat at 36,122 – just below the same time last year. Of these, 8996 properties had been on the market for longer than six months.

While the figure is up from the same time last year, it is significantly down from May where 11,872 houses had been on the market for more than six months.

Melbourne listing numbers Month/year New listings Listed more than 180 days All listings October 2019 15,689 8,996 36,122 October 2018 16,351 6,097 39,187 October 2017 16,294 4,195 31,518 October 2016 17,353 6,413 35,778 Source: SQM Research Embed this table

Fletchers Blackburn director and auctioneer Tim Heavyside said a lack of stock was one of the reasons some vendors had decided to sell before the end of the year, to take advantage of less competition from other sellers.

“There are only four big weekends left before Christmas, so we’ve seen more vendors wanting to sell before the end of the year,” Mr Heavyside said. “There’s been a huge increase in listings for February and March next year.”

Marian and Andrew Sawyer are selling two homes they own in Rowville – one that they built on subdivided land – listing them for auction December 7. They decided to sell after seeing Melbourne’s house prices recover.

The Sawyers are now looking for a new home with a big backyard for their almost-four-year-old daughter to be able to enjoy.

“Timing-wise for our family, now was the right time to sell because we’re looking to move somewhere bigger,” Ms Sawyer said.

Ray White Ferntree Gully’s Josh Noske said the past two months have been particularly busy in Melbourne’s south-east as the spring market kicked in and more vendors looked to sell.

“Throughout the year the conversations were about vendors waiting to see what will happen – now they want to sell before the year is out,” Mr Noske said.

The number of buyers still saw healthy competition despite the extra properties coming up for sale, he said.

“I think a lot of people want to go to Christmas having bought something, so they don’t end up having to keep looking early next year,” Mr Noske said.

Domain economist Trent Wiltshire said that Melbourne’s price turnaround was seeing new listing numbers rise more quickly than the average for the time of year.

“What we’ve seen over spring, is that new listings are increasing at a faster rate than normal,” Mr Wiltshire said.

“If prices continue to rise in 2020, which is looking likely, I think we’ll continue to see new listings rise next year.”