Property listings are on the increase, with SQM Research figures showing a 6.8% lift in the number of properties for sale.

Nationally residential property listings hit 214,495 in February – up from 200,865 in January.

New listings in February rose the most in Canberra, up by 86%, followed by Sydney which was up 81%.

But new listings in February were only slightly higher than February 2021.

The figures show the number of properties sitting on the market for more than 180 days dropped by 0.6% in February and 48% on the same time last year.

Nationally, new listings (less than 30 days) increased 62% in February 2022 to 79,715 properties on the market, to be up 4.3% over the year.

The increase in listings has done little to dampen price growth with asking prices up 1.8% for houses and 3.6% for units in February, SQM says.

In the past 12 months asking prices for houses increased 22.5% and units 13.6%.