More capital cities secure year high clearance rates

Sydney had the nation's highest sale when a four-bedroom waterfront home at 78 Wrights Road, Drummoyne sold for $8.05 million.

The pre-auction price guidance was $6 million to $6.5 million. The waterfront home came with jetty, pontoon and a permanent boat mooring facility (above). 

The property was one of about 540 scheduled to go under the hammer across the city on Saturday, the first day of the spring selling season. 

Domain Group put the Sydney clearance rate at 80 percent and CoreLogic at almost 84 percent.

The number of homes taken to auction across Australia over the weekend fell slightly to 1,858, compared to the 2,153 auctions held last week and 2,297 one year ago, CoreLogic advised.

The 78 percent national clearance rate was higher than the previous week’s result of 74 per cent and up from last year, when the clearance rate was recorded at 73 percent and in decline.

The results show that Sydney's 83.9 percent rated higher than the improving Melbourne which had a 79 percent success rate.

Both cities were host to fewer auctions this week when compared to last week.

Melbourne's preliminary clearance was up from last week’s result of 77.4 percent.

The 79 percent clearance rate is the highest preliminary rate Melbourne has recorded this year.

"It also marks the ninth week in a row that Melbourne’s clearance rate has been recorded above 70 percent," CoreLogic spokesperson, Kevin Brogan said.

The preliminary clearance rate is higher than the 75 percent one year ago.

There were 826 auctions held in Melbourne, down from last week’s 1,060 auctions and lower than the 992 auctions held at the same time last year.

Of the nine sub-regions in Melbourne, the strongest performer was the Mornington Peninsula where 93 per cent of the 30 reported results were successful.

A five-bedroom 2002-extended 1930s house on 1300 sq m in Kew sold through Jellis Craig for $6.24 million ranked as Melbourne's top seller (below).

It last sold in 1997 at $1.27 million. More than $5.5 million was the pre-auction price guidance.

Kew also had Melbourne's second dearest sale at $4.8 million at 51 Rowland Street.

In Sydney, a preliminary clearance rate of 83.9 per cent was recorded, up on 78 percent over the prior period. There were around 540 weekend auctions and 780 across the week.

"Since the final week in April this year, Sydney has consistently recorded weekly clearance rates above the 70 per cent mark," Kevin Brogan said.

"One year ago, auction activity across Sydney was significantly higher, with 1,023 auctions held and 76.9 percent clearing."

Ryde's 95 percent and the Northern Beaches' 91 percent recorded the highest preliminary clearance rates of the sub-regions.

With 135 Brisbane homes taken to auction, Brisbane recorded their highest preliminary clearance rate for the city this year at 58 percent, up from 44 percent last week and higher than one year ago, when 42 per cent of the 130 properties taken to auction were successful.

In Brisbane, the most expensive residential property to sell was a renovated Hamptons-style, five-bedroom house at Bardon which sold for $2.5 million to a Singaporean couple (below).

The pre-war Queenslander at 167 Simpsons Road was transformed with an 18 month renovation had previously traded at $1,186,000 in late 2014.

Brisbane had the nation's cheapest weekend auction result which was $330,000 on Macleay Island. The 137 Beelong Street two bedroom, with water views across the bay, sold through First National Real Estate.

Adelaide saw a preliminary clearance rate of 80, across 57 reported auctions; the highest Adelaide has recorded for the year.

Over the previous week Adelaide’s clearance rate was 63 percent and 69 at the same time last year.

In Perth, auction numbers fell to 26 this week with a preliminary clearance rate of 16 percent. Just six auctions have been reported.

Last week, the final clearance rate for Perth was 34 percent across 29 auctions.

Canberra’s preliminary rate was 77 per cent this week, compared to 71 percent last week and 71 percent one year ago.

The week’s 77 percent is the highest preliminary clearance rate Canberra has seen since early March this year.

CoreLogic has captured 76 results, rising from 56 last week.