Meet the Sydney home owners who are selling this spring

Sydney home owners are listing fewer homes in the lead-up to spring compared to last year as prospective buyers sit on their hands and some homes linger on the market.

Spring is a key time for buying and selling property, but market watchers say external factors such as economic uncertainty and low vendor confidence were contributing to lower new listing levels.

Still, there are more homes on the market overall as older stock goes unsold, with some buyers hanging back anticipating good quality properties to come online, experts say.

New data from Cotality shows in Sydney, total listings as at August 23 rose 14.4 per cent compared to the same time in 2025, but new listings were down 13.2 per cent. This equates to around 850 fewer newly listed homes than the same time last year.

Cotality head of research Gerard Burg said as the property price downturn intensified, potential vendors were mulling holding off on listing until the cycle turned, leading to softer new listing conditions.

“It’s looking like it’s going to be a cooler spring than in previous years … last year’s spring was in the midst of the rate-cutting cycle,” he said.

Property prices jumped last year amid cash rate cuts, rising consumer confidence and low supply, but this was reversed through 2026. Sydney’s median home value has fallen and economists say house prices are unlikely to turn until signs the Reserve Bank would cut interest rates.

Sydney listing trends were similar over longer time-frames, with new listings around 14 per cent and 10 per cent below the five- and 10-year averages. Total Sydney listings are around 12 per cent above the five-and-10-year averages.

“Those buyers who remain in the market have more time to consider their options, more time to weigh up their choices, more opportunity to negotiate,” said Burg. “It’s very much a buyer’s market.”

Michelle May, principal of Michelle May Buyers Agents, who works across Sydney, said agents were reporting lower listings than normal for this time of year as vendors remained concerned about getting their desired price.

“Finding good listings is still a struggle, but I have seen this week … some more volume coming into my inbox,” she said.

Markets in different parts of Sydney were behaving differently, said Leanne Pilkington, CEO of real estate group Laing+Simmons.

“In the inner west, for instance, buyer’s agents are active and real estate agents are doing their best to offer the most suitable properties. ”

Across Sydney, new listing levels have fallen most compared to the previous five-year-average in the eastern suburbs (down 38.9 per cent) and the northern beaches (down 24 per cent). The outer south west region and Blacktown fell least.

Of the spots with the deepest falls, Burg said these were “the first areas to really see declines in terms of their values”, prompting some more price-sensitive vendors to hang back.

While Pilkington wasn’t expecting spring listing numbers to be as high as 2025, there would still be a seasonal uplift, she said, with L+S agents reporting more stock coming online. Some vendors were motivated by lifestyle or household change, she added.

Husband and wife Colin Brown and Christine Jeffries, both 59, fall into this category.

After spending almost 20 years in their renovated California bungalow in the inner west’s Russell Lea with their two daughters Sophie Brown, 24, and Lili Brown, 21, the couple have listed it.

They are looking to their next chapter, with plans to retire to a bushland setting near Newcastle where they have already bought a home.

With that property tenanted there was no urgency to list, but spring was chosen as it was viewed as being one of the “best times” to sell, said Brown, a retired marketing professional.

After doing research, the couple found their area was resilient with stock for their type of property low. The turnkey home has desirable features, including natural light and space for a growing family.

“We just felt that it was the right time to do it, especially for the kind of property that we had,” he said. “The consistent feedback from everyone was … it’s a beautiful house.”

The couple see the market has changed to a buyer’s market, but Jeffries, a primary school teacher, said they had worked hard to make the property “shine”.

“That means, no matter what happens, we know we’ve done everything we can,” she said.

Fiona Hellams, of Ray White Inner West Group, their selling agent with Angela Saidi, said stock was lower across winter, with people generally selling for circumstantial reasons. Family home listings were scarce, but in demand.

“There’s a lot of younger people that haven’t quite started their family yet … they’re skipping that, ‘buy an apartment, sell it, buy a little house, sell it’,” Hellams said, adding they were going straight into a family house.

If rate expectations stabilise, James Cahill, principal of Belle Property Glebe, expected more confidence from buyers who had been “sitting on the sidelines”, waiting for good quality, tightly held properties.

“Good homes will always outperform the broader market,” he said.