It’s a buyers’ market, but property buyers just vanished

Buyers are holding back from the spring property market, even as house prices fall. Fewer new listings, a fear of overpaying and a lack of urgency are keeping many from taking the plunge.

In Sydney, there are around half the number of potential buyers visiting open homes as at September 12 this year compared to the same time in 2025, Ray White data shows, despite open home attendee numbers inching up from their winter lows.

The average number of those visiting open homes as at September was 2.2. This was down from almost four potential buyers at open homes recorded at the same time last year. Meanwhile, the average number of active bidders at Sydney auctions was 1.8, compared to 2.9 at the same last year.

It was a similar story in Melbourne, where there were just over two potential buyers at open homes as at September 12, which was down from over three-and-a-half at the same time in 2025. Auctions were attracting an average of 1.8 bidders, down from the more than three who showed up to compete at the same time last year.

It comes as the value of Australia’s property market fell $34 billion, or by 0.3 per cent in the June quarter, ABS figures show. The value of Australian homes is still $1 trillion, or 8.5 per cent up on the June quarter last year.

Ray White Group data analyst Paolo Sumalong said the numbers were showing what was happening on the ground in the market in early spring.

“It’s not falling off a cliff,” Sumalong said. “There’s a lot more caution and reduced urgency [from buyers and sellers] is what we’re hearing.”

Sumalong said recent interest rate hikes, the ongoing US-Iran war which is pushing the cost of living higher, and Federal budget announcements changing the tax treatment of capital gains and negative gearing, were still impacting the market.

Experts say while they saw a lift in the number of people turning up to open homes and to auctions at the weekend, buyers are still holding back as they struggle to find something to buy.

Auction volumes and new listing numbers are down in spring, while the clearance rate holds steady.

For the first week of spring, auction volumes fell 31 per cent, on Cotality data, while Sydney’s new listings for the start of spring were down 13.2 per cent, and Melbourne’s -16.3 per cent.

Lenders including Commonwealth Bank of Australia and ANZ are predicting another interest rate hike this year, which would cut the amount that buyers can borrow and spend, making many nervous to take the plunge.

In Sydney, McGowan Property Buyers’ Cathy McGowan who works across northern suburbs, North Shore and Hills district, said buyers were returning, but they were not compromising on what they wanted to buy.

“Talking to other buyer’s agents, we’re getting a sense that buyers are starting to come back but the properties that have challenges or offer compromises are not attracting the numbers,” McGowan said.

Anything newly listed and competitively priced was gaining the attention of buyers. But there still wasn’t enough for buyers to choose from, she said.

“My take on the market is that this time of the year buyers expect there to be more properties for sale and I don’t think the number is what they expect.”

Buyers were hoping to nab a bargain. While five or more bidders may register, often only two will compete as prices rose above some buyer’s budgets.

Others hope for a pass-in to be able to negotiate a good deal after the auction.

“Caution is definitely still there with buyers.”

Select Property Advocates director and buyer’s advocate Carly Susic said Melbourne’s market was likewise lacking new houses for sale.

“In a market such as this people with quality property hang onto their property and don’t sell because they’re not backed into a corner so they don’t have to sell,” Susic said. “We’re finding, for what we want to buy, it’s so tight in the A-grade market we are competing.”

For anything that’s not in good condition, buyers were not turning up - either to an open home or an auction, she said.

“Buyers get fussy in these markets and think ‘I might just wait because it’s going to drop more’.”

There were some green shoots, however, with BigginScott Richmond’s director and auctioneer Andrew Crotty saying that potential buyers showing up to open homes were often people they had not seen before and were new to the market.

“At the start of the spring market it feels like, just quietly, there’s a little bit more confidence out there,” he said. “The numbers haven’t gone up to 15 like we used to have - but it’s gone from two to three to six.”

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