What is property market liquidity?

None of these is a valuation. Together they describe how much market there is.

• Turnover. Recorded sales for the property’s class in the suburb (or a tight adjoining cluster) over a stated window, and that count as a share of stock if you have a stock figure. A median from twelve house sales is a different object from a median from two hundred.
• Consistent days on market. Days from first listing to sale or withdrawal, counted the same way each time. A single short campaign is uninformative. A run of long campaigns in the same class is a signal.
• Failed campaigns. Withdrawals, relistings and quiet returns. A “new” 14-day listing can hide a six-month history.
• Sample depth. How many usable comps survive grading. If you cannot find three strong or reasonable sales, the exit is as uncertain as the entry. See asking price.

Publishers start the clock at first appearance, at the current campaign, or at the last price change. A withdrawn and relaunched listing can look short. Compare within one source. Treat the absolute number loosely. A long campaign with no price change points at the ask. A long campaign with reductions shows a vendor meeting the market. Neither number proves the eventual recorded sale was “right”.

High-turnover illustration. A suburb profile shows 180 recorded house sales in twelve months behind the house median. Live listings for three-bedroom houses are turning over; few sit beyond a month in the same source; failed campaigns are uncommon. You still need comps for the subject lot. You do have a thick tape.

Thin illustration. A small suburb or an unusual type shows 11 recorded sales in twelve months, two of them related-party on inspection of the cluster, and three current listings that have been withdrawn once already. The median is a small-sample figure and Districts labels the count. The comparable set is thin in both directions. Buying there is not “wrong”. The exit has to be planned as a wide range and a long campaign.

A quick sale can be a keen buyer, a low ask, or a thin market that found one party. A slow sale can be an ambitious ask or a quiet month. Recorded price is what one buyer paid on one day. Districts will not convert campaign length into a valuation gap. See why Districts does not provide a valuation.

• Reading a high median as a liquid market.
• Comparing days on market across publishers who start the clock differently.
• Using all-dwellings volume for a unit when almost all the sales were houses.
• Ignoring off-market transfers, which settle on title and never appear as listings.

Suburb profiles show the number of recorded sales behind each median, with period and source. Listing observations carry the dates they were seen. There is no Districts days-on-market indicator and no vendor-discount figure. Matching asks to later recorded sales is not reliable enough in the sources Districts holds to publish a discount series.

Count recorded sales for the class through the register or the source cited on the profile. Ask the listing agent when the campaign first started and whether it was withdrawn. Walk the live listings for the class over a few weeks. Your lender, not Districts, decides whether the property type or location is harder to finance.