Preliminary clearance rate slips to 67.0 percent: CoreLogic RP Data Shana Miller
The amount of auction activity across the capital cities increased substantially this week, up from 554 auctions held the previous week to 1,543 held this week.
At the same time last year it was the long weekend for Easter, so auction volumes were lower, with 653 homes taken to auction across the combined capitals. This week the weighted average clearance rate across the combined capitals was 67.0 percent, slipping from 70.9 percent over the previous week when the combined capitals recorded the strongest clearance rate seen in four weeks, despite the low volumes.
There were 567 Melbourne auctions this week, making it the second busiest capital city for auctions after Sydney. This is the second week in a row where the Sydney auction market has been busier than that of Melbourne’s, however Melbourne volumes are expected to climb leading up to the ANZAC day long weekend. Across the 503 reported results, 68.0 per cent were successful this week, down from 71.4 per cent last week and lower than the 86.5 per cent recorded last year when just 63 Melbourne auctions were held. This week’s strongest performing Melbourne sub-region was the Inner East with 74.4 per cent of auctions cleared, based on preliminary results.
A total of 648 homes were auctioned in Sydney this week, with preliminary results returning a clearance rate of 70.9 percent. Last week, across the 349 auctions in the city 77.9 percent of results were successful, the strongest result for the city since mid-February. In comparison, over the same week last year 427 Sydney auctions were held and the clearance rate was 84.7 percent. The busiest regions for auctions across Sydney this week were North Sydney and Hornsby (103 auctions) and Inner South West (84 auctions), while clearance rates ranged from as high as 94.1 percent in City and Inner South to as low as 28.0 percent in Parramatta.
Across Brisbane, auction volumes rose from 48 last week to 140 this week, with a preliminary clearance rate of 57.0 per cent, compared to 45.0 per cent last week. The number of auctions being held across Brisbane is likely to be high over the weeks leading up to the ANZAC day long weekend, given there will be two long weekends in a row. The Gold Coast had 78 auctions this week and so far 47 results have been reported. The preliminary clearance rate for the region was 38.3 per cent this week.
Preliminary results show that 75.4 per cent of Adelaide auctions were successful this week, up from last week (66.7 per cent), but lower than one year ago when 83.3 per cent of the 34 auctions held were successful.
Perth’s preliminary auction clearance rate was 37.5 percent this week. Last week, 6 results were captured across the city, with all having sold. While auction volumes were low last week, this week 37 Perth homes were taken to auction, returning to relatively normal levels for the city.
Based on preliminary results, 52.3 percent of Canberra auctions were successful this week, down from 58.3 per cent last week and lower than one year ago (71.8 percent). There were 67 auctions held in Canberra this week, 26 last week and 49 at the same time last year.
There were 9 auctions held in Tasmania this week with 5 results reported so far. Of the reported results, 2 were successful.