Spring selling season is well and truly back in force, with new data showing city auction volumes have spiked to the highest level since May 2022.
According to the Domain’s Auction Report, 9518 properties went to auction last month across the combined capital cities, the highest in 16 months.
Meanwhile, in regional Australia, 1340 homes went under the hammer – the highest since December 2022.
The high volume of auctions have given buyers more choice and led to clearance rates falling to 64.5 per cent across the capital cities and 44.6 per cent in regional Australia.
Domain’s Chief of Research and Economics, Dr Nicola Powell said while clearance rates had fallen, they remained high relative to recent years.
“The September auction performance shows Australia’s housing market is in continued recovery,” Dr Powell said.
“This drop in clearance rates is driven by increased auction listings for the third consecutive month, providing prospective buyers with more choices – helping to ease competition and urgency.”
Dr Powell said the lift in auction listings was driven by stronger clearance rates and property market conditions motivating sellers to list.
“This was highlighted when auction listings started ramping up earlier during the winter months, and the official start of the spring selling season saw higher volumes than last year,” she said.
On the capital city clearance rate front, Adelaide is the best-performing capital city at 74.5 per cent, while Sydney and Melbourne held above 60 per cent.
For houses and units, across the combined capitals, house clearance rates remain higher than units, with the exception of Melbourne.
Over the course of the month, the median auction price for houses increased in the five major auction markets.
Canberra was strongest with a 3.4 per cent increase, followed by Brisbane (1.7 per cent), Sydney (0.9 per cent), Melbourne (0.2 per cent) and Adelaide (0.2 per cent).
Melbourne houses have now experienced a 2.4 per cent annual change in median auction sale price while Sydney houses are 0.5 per cent higher.
For units, Sydney saw an increase of 0.8 per cent, while Brisbane prices surged 9.2 per cent.
