It doesn’t look like the property market is going to be sucked into a black hole. In fact, there are signs of a spending spree ahead. In particular, selling times are falling.
At SRP, when a property is first listed for sale, we make a note of the date. Later, when it sells, we measure how long it took. This is the “Days on Market” or DOM. We calculate a suburb DOM each month by taking the average for all properties that sold. And suburb DOMs can be averaged for a city DOM.
City DOM's
![](https://selectresidentialproperty.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/DOM-1.png)
In a hot market, if a tardy buyer misses out on a property, they don’t muck about with the next one. So, the DOM is a good measure of demand relative to supply.
You can see from the prior chart that the average DOM for the big 4 has taken a sharp nose-dive since April. It’s not necessarily a pandemic thing though. Sydney and Melbourne DOMs already started dropping towards the end of 2019.
![](https://selectresidentialproperty.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/DOM-2.png)
Over the last 3 years, selling times in most large population centres peaked around May 2020. And then fell off a cliff.
![](https://selectresidentialproperty.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/DOM-3.png)
Wollongong’s DOM started falling from January 2020. Canberra has been Mr Consistent.
Look how quick you have to be in Hobart…
![](https://selectresidentialproperty.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/DOM-4.png)
Notice how Ballarat’s impressive DOM fell sharply in early 2018 and has been low-as since.
These are good signs capital growth is on its way to a lot of Australian property owners.
Fastest DOM's
Some of the fastest selling times*:
![](https://selectresidentialproperty.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/TAB-1.png)
*with sufficient statistical reliability
At the other end of the spectrum, some no-go zones:
![](https://selectresidentialproperty.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/tab-2.png)
Some of these are in remote or mining areas where the market is on life-support.
Big Changes
An example of a worrying case is that of Jurien Bay in WA.
![](https://selectresidentialproperty.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/r1.png)
Sellers are waiting about 8 months to get a sale.
It’s a different story in Kangaroo Flat in Bendigo.
![](https://selectresidentialproperty.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/r2.png)
A few years ago, properties were taking twice as long to sell. It’s a good sign for Bendigo.
Heads-up
Note that property markets quite often have conflicting metrics, like a good DOM but a bad vacancy or high stock on market. It’s important to look at more than one metric when making your growth assessment.
Commentary by:
JEREMY SHEPPARD
Director of Select Residential Property
Founder of DSR Data
“Capital growth is the ants pants of property investing.”
![](https://selectresidentialproperty.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Jeremy-Sheappard-243x300.jpg)