The demand is there but limited stock has seen the combined capitals auction clearance rate hit a five-week high at a time when it traditionally plateaus.
After recording the lowest preliminary rate in nine weeks last week, the combined capital’s preliminary clearance rate has rebounded to 74.5 per cent.
According to CoreLogic, this week’s preliminary clearance rate is 4.2 percentage points higher than last week’s rate of 70.3 per cent, which was revised down to 64.9 per cent at final figures.
It’s also 19.4 per cent above the final clearance rate recorded this week last year, when just 55.1 per cent of capital city auctions were successful.
Driving the higher than usual clearance rates is low stock levels, while the Reserve Bank’s decision to keep interest rates on hold last Tuesday is also likely to have played a part.
Capital city auction activity eased for the third consecutive week, with just 1418 homes actioned across the combined capitals.
It was the quietest auction week since the June long weekend, with this week’s auction volume 8.1 per cent below the week prior and 12.9 per cent less than the 1628 properties auctioned this time last year.
In Sydney, 564 homes went under the hammer across the city, down from 676 last week and 605 this time last year.
Sydney’s preliminary clearance rate rose 4.4 percentage points, with 75.6 per cent of the 427 results collected to date reporting a successful result.
The rise in the preliminary clearance rate was accompanied by a slight increase in the withdrawal rate (13.6 per cent), while the portion of properties passed in at auction (10.8 per cent) fell to its lowest rate since mid-October 2021 (8 per cent).
Ray White NSW state auctioneer Perry Edmondson-Clark said sellers coming to market continued to be rewarded for their decision.
“We saw another strong weekend of results across the Sydney market today with supply remaining low in buyer activity remaining incredibly high,” he said.
“Our clearance rate and bidder data continue to show the market is performing incredibly strongly week in week out.
“We’re seeing results well above the owner’s expectations at auction.
“I personally had one auction today that achieved $180,000 More at auction than the highest offer prior and results like this must continue to give sellers confidence around choosing the auction method of sale and coming to the market now.”
Melbourne auction numbers rose slightly this week, up 14 from 550 last week to 564 this week.
The preliminary clearance rate rose 2.6 per cent, with 72.8 per cent of the 448 results CoreLogic collected returning a positive result.
Melbourne’s preliminary clearance rate has now held above 70 per cent for 13 consecutive weeks.
This time last year, 627 homes were taken to auction across the city, and a final clearance rate of 55.7 per cent was reported.
Ray White Victoria Chief Auctioneer Jeremy Tyrell said the RBA’s decision to keep the cash rate on hold at 4.1 per cent meant buyer confidence remained strong, with fierce competition reported across a number of auctions.
“That said, Melbourne’s property market was like a box of chocolates this week with an assortment of results,” Mr Tyrell said.
“Auction volume was less than the previous week’s total of 155 with 139 auctions scheduled.
“The preliminary clearance rate is still strong at 70 per cent with 3.7 active bidders on average across all auctions.”
Across the smaller capitals, auction activity fell across Adelaide (down 8 per cent) and Brisbane (down 19.8 per cent) but rose in Canberra (2.9 per cent) and Perth, from six auctions last week to 12 this week.
Brisbane (105) hosted the most auctions among the smaller capitals this week, followed by Adelaide (103) and Canberra (70).
Adelaide continued to record the strongest preliminary clearance rate among the smaller capitals, with 86.2 per cent of auctions reporting a successful result, up 4.4 per cent week-on-week and the highest preliminary clearance rates since the last week of February earlier this year.
This was followed by Canberra (76.3 per cent), up 15.8 percentage points, and Brisbane, where 69.1 per cent of auctions recorded a successful result.
Just two of the six auction results collected so far were successful in Perth. No auctions were held in Tasmania this week.
