Confused by a sentence from an article
I read an article about Australian properties, and there are some words which are very hard for me to understand. Here is the excerpt:
"Total property listings across the capitals have risen 10.2%, leaving them at the highest level since late 2012."
"By individual capital, listings in Sydney and Melbourne have surged by 19.5% and 18.4% over the past 12 months, largely explaining the increase in the national measure."

What does the "property listings" mean?
What does the "by individual capital" mean? I know "individual capital" means something like talent after consulting the internet, but I feel it doesn't make sense in this sentence if it means that.
The last one confusing me is "in the national measure". Does it mean "at the national level"?
I will really appreciate if someone can explain these to me. Thanks.

Question

Confused by a sentence from an article
I read an article about Australian properties, and there are some words which are very hard for me to understand. Here is the excerpt:
"Total property listings across the capitals have risen 10.2%, leaving them at the highest level since late 2012."
"By individual capital, listings in Sydney and Melbourne have surged by 19.5% and 18.4% over the past 12 months, largely explaining the increase in the national measure."

What does the "property listings" mean? 
What does the "by individual capital" mean? I know "individual capital" means something like talent after consulting the internet, but I feel it doesn't make sense in this sentence if it means that. 
The last one confusing me is "in the national measure". Does it mean "at the national level"? 
I will really appreciate if someone can explain these to me. Thanks.

Answer

A measure is a statistic. "in the national measure" means in the totals/numbers for the whole country. That is, not the individual state measures./numbers.

Answer

available to buy?

Answer

'Property Listings' - refers to property being available to sell. i.e. The amount of property for sale has increased by 10.2%.

'By individual capital' - refers to the individual capital cities of each Australian state. There are 8 States/Territories in Australia, each with its own capital city. Out of these capital cities, Sydney's property listings have increased by 19.5% and Melbournes listings have increased by 18.4%.

'In the national measure' - I assume this means at the national level

Answer

Hi Irene, I think this is badly written. Capital usually means money. But it can also mean capital city. Here it seems to mean capital city. Except Canberra is the capital of Australia! So it is a little ambiguous. The writer might mean the amount each property is selling for. This would be individual capital. But equally the writer could mean the number of properties in each city. Or finally the writer may intend the amount sold (in money) in each city. Very confusing. Hope this helps.