Over the 12 months to May 2017, only 4.8% of all houses nationally actually sold highlighting just how little stock sells in a given 12 month period.

Across house sales over the past 12 months, Tasmania saw the highest proportion of stock turning over with 5.6% of all houses in the state selling.  Conversely, Western Australia saw the lowest proportion of turnover with just 4.0% of all houses selling over the past year.  

% of total houses sold by state,
12 months to May 2017

The low volume of housing stock which actually turns-over highlights why caution should be taken when looking at median sale prices.  Because of the low sample a median is based off they can be biased.  Furthermore, they may not be reflective of the whole market and when you compare between periods they may compare two very different bundles of housing types and quality.

The table provided highlights the five suburbs in each state which have seen the greatest turnover of houses over the past year.  Only those suburbs that have at least 500 houses have been included on the list.  

Suburbs in each state with highest % of housing turnover,
12 months to May 2017

Zuccoli in Darwin had the highest proportion of stock turning-over across the country with 38.5% of all houses in the suburb selling over the past year.  Note that Zuccoli is a relatively new, under-developed suburb of Darwin which is seeing substantial new housing injections.  Clyde North in Melbourne had the second-highest level of turnover with 17.6% of all houses in the suburb selling over the past year.

Even though the table details the suburbs with the greatest turnover of houses, each of the suburbs listed have seen substantially less than half of all houses selling.  
Another characteristic of the list is that most of the suburbs shown are areas where there is or has been over recent years, a substantial injection of new housing stock.  This is also reflected in average hold period data which shows that in new housing estate areas housing stock tends to turnover with greater regularity. 

Overall, housing turnover in any given year reflects only a small proportion of the total housing stock.  It further highlights that taxes on transactions such as stamp duty are heavily reliant on collection from only a small pool of overall housing stock.

Cameron Kusher
Senior Research Analyst, CoreLogic