Housing glut to hit values: report

Western Australia is officially experiencing a housing glut, new research says, with home values forecast to dip five to ten per cent over the course of the next two years.

Property analysts SQM Research's analysis of residential listings showed a 4.6 per cent jump in Western Australia over the last month, taking the yearly increase to 74.8 per cent

The figures showed there were 17,586 houses for sale in WA in April, up from 16,899 in March.

In April 2010, there were just 9,717 houses on the market.

Nationally, online residential listings rose by 3.9 per cent during April to 370,638.

SQM said the increasing supply of stock was sufficient evidence a housing glut has officially set in, and as stock levels continued to increase, house prices would fall.

SQM Research predicted that in most capital cities there would be a five to ten per cent decline in house prices over the course of the next two years.