RESIDENTIAL property transactions in Melbourne will show a decline for the fifth consecutive year, with sales to the end of November down more than 40,000 from the peak in 2001.
Property analyst Residex said residential sales so far this year totalled 54,799 ? and with only a month to go the number is unlikely to eclipse last year's 66,339 transactions.
Sales of units showed this year's biggest decline ? 16,050 compared with 20,583 last year. The figure is well short of the high in 2001 of 40,041.
So far this year, 38,749 homes have sold, compared with 45,756 for all of last year. Residential sales in 2001 totalled 98,269.
At the peak of the property market in 2003, the value of dwellings changing hands was a record $30.4 billion. The figure to the end of November is $23.4 billion and, according to Residex, the total for the year is likely to be down on last year's $25.4 billion of sales.
The figures are $10 billion lower than the data from the valuer-general because the Residex figures do not include all the Mornington Peninsula and outer areas of Melbourne.
While the low volume of sales this year has underpinned Melbourne's property prices, it has also resulted in a continued contraction in the real estate industry. The Real Estate Institute of Victoria has reported that 65 member offices closed this year, up on the 55 offices that ceased trading last year.
Despite the decline in the volume of sales, more vendors opted for auctions as a selling method, with dwellings sold under the hammer rising from 19,424 in 2004 to an estimated 21,118 this year.
The yearly clearance rate also picked up, from 56.8 per cent last year to an estimated 65.5 per cent this year, indicating growing strength in the inner-city market, where auctions tend to predominate.
Melbourne's median house price peaked at $380,000 in the December quarter of 2003. In the September quarter this year it was $360,000.
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