Auction clearance rate remains above 70 percent for the ninth week: CoreLogic

Auction clearance rate remains above 70 percent for the ninth week: CoreLogic
Staff reporterDecember 7, 2020

It has been another strong week for auction activity. There were 2,445 auctions held across the combined capital cities with a preliminary auction clearance rate of 78.3 percent this week, according to CoreLogic's latest report. 

Last week, the final auction clearance rate was recorded at 76.2 percent with 2,149 residential properties taken to auction.

At the same time last year, auction volumes were higher (2,835) with a clearance rate of 69.7 percent. Over the first four weeks of Spring, auction clearance rates have consistently been recorded at a higher rate than over the corresponding weeks last year, while auction volumes remain around 20 percent lower.

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In Melbourne, Australia’s largest auction market, 79.1 percent of the 946 reported auctions sold this week. There were 1,090 auctions held across the city this week, up from 965 last week when the final auction clearance rate was 77.8 percent and lower than the 1,201 auctions held one year ago, which returned a lower clearance rate (72.7 percent).

The Inner region of Melbourne had the highest number of auctions this week (224), with a preliminary clearance rate of 75.5 percent. Meanwhile, the strongest clearance rate was 89.7 percent recorded across the Mornington Peninsula region, followed by 83.5 percent across the Inner South region.

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Across Sydney, 930 homes were taken to auction this week with a preliminary clearance rate of 84.4 pe cent across 770 reported results. Last week, the final clearance rate for the city was 81.6 percent, across 815 auctions. One year ago, 1,200 Sydney homes were taken to auction and the clearance rate was 71.7 percent.

This week, the performance across Sydney’s individual sub regions was varied. Across the Outer South West region, where 10 results have been reported so far, the preliminary clearance rate was 70.0 percent, while the Central Coast had a 100 percent success rate of the 14 reported auctions.

There were four sub-regions of Sydney where more than 100 auctions were held this week and of these, each recorded a clearance rate in excess of 70 percent, with Eastern Suburbs (88.3 percent) and North Sydney and Hornsby (88.2 percent) the strongest performers.

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There were 144 Brisbane homes taken to auction this week, with 103 results reported so far. The preliminary clearance rate for the city is 51.5 percent, up from 48.4 percent last week and lower than one year ago, when 54.9 percent of the 203 properties taken to auction were successful. Across the Gold Coast 29 results have been reported so far, with a success rate of 58.6 percent (17 sales).

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This week, Adelaide saw a preliminary clearance rate of 83.9 percent, with 87 reported results across a total of 126 scheduled auctions. This week’s clearance rate is the highest on record for the city, but has the potential to revise lower as more auctions are reported.

In comparison, over the previous week Adelaide’s clearance rate was 74.7 percent with fewer auctions held across the city (95) and 68.1 percent one year ago across virtually the same volume of auctions.

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Perth’s clearance rate of 35.1 percent across 49 auctions is down from the previous week, when 39 auctions were held and a clearance rate of 45.2 percent was recorded.  Over the same week last year, the clearance rate was a lower 31.6 percent, and just 25 auctions were held.

In Canberra, 90 auctions were held this week, and of the 73 reported results, 69.9 percent were successful. Last week, 87 auctions were held and the clearance rate was a higher 72.0 percent. This time last year, results were down 58 auctions held and a clearance rate of 58.5 percent.

There were 16 Tasmanian auctions held this week. 4 were reported as sold.

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