Auction volumes drop due to Anzac Day commemorations: Shana Miller

As a result of the Anzac Day commemorations on Saturday, which is traditionally the busiest day for auctions, it was a quiet week for auction activity.

There were 550 auctions held across the combined capital cities this week, with a preliminary auction clearance rate of 84.3%. While this is the highest auction clearance rate on record, it is likely that the clearance rate will revise down as the remaining auctions are reported.

Last week, a clearance rate of 78.9% was recorded across 2,603 capital city auctions. At the same time last year, auction volumes were higher than this week, but still low off the back of Easter, with 881 properties taken to auction and a clearance rate of 64.6%.

In Melbourne, Australia’s largest auction market, a preliminary auction clearance rate of 87.4% was recorded across 169 auctions this week. Last week, Melbourne’s final clearance rate was recorded at 79.5% across 1,266 auctions, while this time last year, 373 properties were taken to auction across Melbourne and a clearance rate of 63.0% was recorded. The busiest Melbourne sub-regions this week were Melbourne’s Inner region and the Inner South region, where 27 and 26 auctions were held respectively.

Sydney’s preliminary clearance rate this week was 91.9% across 192 auction results. There were a total of 249 auctions held across the city. Excluding this week, last week’s clearance rate of 87.0% across 988 auctions was the highest clearance rate on record for the city. It will be interesting to track this week’s final auction clearance rate once the remaining results have been reported.

Looking back at this weekend last year, 361 auctions were held across Sydney and a clearance rate of 71.3% was recorded. Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs hosted the most auctions of any Sydney sub-region this week, with 62 properties taken to auction. The preliminary clearance rate for the region is 95.7% across 47 results.

There were 39 Brisbane auctions this week and so far 11 results have been reported, with 10 sales. Last week, auction volumes across the city were much higher with 140 auctions held across the city and a 46.4% clearance rate recorded.

Much like Brisbane, the number of homes taken to auction this week fell across the Gold Coast with 32 properties up for sale this week. Of the 21 results reported, just over half (52.4%) were successful.

A total of 59 Adelaide homes were taken to auction this week, with a preliminary clearance rate of 55.0% across 20 results, down from 69.7% last week when 97 auctions were held across the city.

In Perth, just 10 auctions were held this week. So far, only 2 successful sales have been reported to CoreLogic RP Data. Last week, the final auction clearance rate for Perth was 28.6% across 36 auctions.

Canberra’s clearance rate was 78.6% this week, up from 65.6% last week.

There was only 1 Tasmanian auction held this week. The property was reported as sold.