While some Illawarra properties are being snapped up quickly and suburb records continue to fall,other homes are spending more than six months on the market.
Experts suggest this is due to a series of factors, including sellers' unrealistic price expectations and buyers not wanting to purchase homes that require extensive renovations.
In the Illawarra, the median days on market, that is the time it took to sell, has jumped over the past 12 months.
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In the three months to October 2023, it took 31 days on average for a property to sell, according to CoreLogic. In the same period this year that figure had risen to 35 days.
However, some properties are lagging on the market for a lot longer.
More than 10 per cent of current homes for sale in the Illawarra have failed to sell after more than 180 days on the market.
CoreLogic's head of research Eliza Owen said there were multiple factors perhaps leading to properties remaining on the market for 180 days or more.
"We know that values have been broadly recovering across the Illawarra since early 2023," she said.
"But as for why the properties are still sitting on the market for a long period of time, it's either because they were listed when the market was a little weaker, or affordability constraints are narrowing the buyer pool.
"Deals are still getting done, values are still rising, but the pace of increases has slowed down, and perhaps the pace of selling has slowed down as a result too.
"And another factor could be the kinds of properties coming to market. If properties have a lot of land, they're a high-end property, or a unique property, it can just take longer to find a buyer."
Ms Owen said sellers could have price expectations based on sales during the past six months to a year, which may not be in line with where the market was currently at.
"Where we are now is an environment where cost of living pressures have only risen, and affordability pressures have risen across the Illawarra," she said.
"Also, people who had the means to buy in the high interest rate environment may have already done so.
"So the buyer pool is thinning out, the seller has to adjust their expectations to get a deal done as the market is slowing, and that can slow down the rate of selling as well."
'Buyers are fussy'
The number of Illawarra homes that sold after more than six months on the market has doubled from two years ago.
Monique Field from Monique Field Property said sales are still happening throughout the region, and in the right circumstances homes could transact within a short period.
However, she said price-point and the proper presentation were crucial.
"Buyers are fussy, and you need to create some urgency for the buyer, otherwise the house will sit there," she said.
"It's a buyers' market at the moment... They can afford to sit and wait for a while for the right property."
Mrs Field said sellers needed to be realistic with price expectations, and properties that required renovation were not always appealing to buyers.
"Some would prefer to spend more and not have to do a thing," Mrs Field said. "They don't want the expense and the effort of a renovation."
Vanessa Denison-Pender from McGrath Thirroul said she had noticed some homes in the region were sitting on the market for longer.
"Once you get to that six-month mark, as a seller, your price is probably not going to be anywhere near what you thought it was going to be on day one," she said.
Mrs Denison-Pender said there were some sellers whose price expectations weren't realistic in the current market.
"There are definitely some people that are clinging to 2022 prices," she said.
"It's not in all cases. But a lot of vendors don't want to hear that their property was worth 10 per cent more in 2022, and it's not worth that today.
"But if you're going to market expecting a price that was potentially achievable in 2022, I think people need to get that out of their heads. They may get that, but the likelihood is they probably won't."
Mrs Denison-Pender said another factor was buyers being "scared of over-paying".
"I think they believe the market is going to drop," she said.
However, she said high-end homes that didn't require any work could still sell quickly.
For instance, the home at 30 Kurraba Road, Woonona which sold for $4.35 million after less than a month on the market.
"The reason it sold so quickly was it doesn't need anything done to it," she said. "There's no renovation costs, it's an immaculate property."
