Home buyers across most of Australia's capital cities now have significantly more properties to choose from than a year ago, even as the pace of new listings hitting the market has slowed, according to the latest realestate.com.au Market Snapshot for July 2026.
New listings nationally fell almost 11% month-on-month in July and were down 2% year-on-year, driven largely by steep declines in Sydney and Melbourne, where new listings dropped around 14% and 18% respectively. Brisbane and Adelaide also recorded monthly falls in new listings.
Despite this, the total number of homes for sale nationally is about 4% higher than a year ago, and almost 10% higher across the combined capitals. Every capital city except Darwin and Hobart now has considerably more total stock on the market than 12 months ago.
Realestate.com.au senior economist Angus Moore (pictured) said the shift was most pronounced in Perth, Adelaide, and Brisbane, all cities that experienced tight supply and strong price growth in recent years.
"Those three cities had a quiet year in 2025, with the combined number of new listings hitting the market across the cities below average through much of the year," Moore said. "This year has seen that reverse, with activity above average for this time of year, particularly in Perth."
Perth recorded the sharpest annual increase in new listings, up more than 24%, while total stock is almost 15% higher. Adelaide posted the largest annual rise in total listings overall, up 18.6%, followed by Brisbane (17.7%) and Canberra (17%).
Whitefox Perth managing director David Murray said improved stock levels had finally allowed long-reluctant sellers, particularly downsizing baby boomers, to list.
"For the 2023 to 2025 period it was just so hard for baby boomers to downsize," Murray said. "They were sitting in five-bed family homes with no one but themselves... but they had nothing to downsize into so they weren't putting their stock on the market."
"The cumulative impact of three interest rate rises and changes to investor tax settings have dampened buyer demand, driving a broad-based slowdown in home prices and market conditions," he said.
The RBA held the cash rate at 4.35% for a second straight meeting on 11 August, while flagging that further hikes remained "on the table." Those tax settings refer to the May budget's negative gearing and capital gains tax changes, which restrict new negative gearing deductions on existing dwellings and replace the flat 50% CGT discount with CPI indexation, with pre-12 May 2026 purchases grandfathered.
Against that backdrop, national home prices fell around 0.3% in July, with steeper declines recorded in higher-priced market segments, consistent with typical interest-rate-driven downturn patterns.
Eclipse Real Estate principal John Ktoris said reduced investor activity following recent federal budget changes had extended selling times in Adelaide, creating more favourable conditions for first-home buyers navigating a less competitive market.
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