Clearance rate gallops to year high, as auction listings stay stubbornly low

Flemington has been recently ranked the Melbourne suburb with the fastest selling houses.

Houses listed by private treaty in Flemington sell in 39 days, according to Investar’s latest market report.

It was followed by Kensington at 40 days and Caulfield South at 42 days.

Houses price growth at Flemington appears to also have some gallop too.

The three bedroom Edwardian home at 17 Sturt Street (above) was offered for weekend auction with initial price guidance between $850,000 to $900,000, which was upped to $860,000 to $940,000 during the marketing campaign.

It fetched $1,237,000 at weekend auction having last sold at $585,000 in 2005.

The Malvern home of the late legendary bookmaker Sid Hill and his widow Marcia sold for $3.15 million on Saturday.

It was declared on the market at $2.95 million as four bidders battled for the home. 

Auction clearances rose to their highest level this year across Australia.

The national average rate clearance hit 80.2 percent, up from 76. 2 percent last week, CoreLogic's preliminary numbers showed.

In Sydney, the success rate rose to 85.6 percent from 81.4 percent last week as the number of spring auctions fell to 866 from 913.

Melbourne clearances increased too from 77.7 percent to 81.8 percent, while its auction numbers rose, to 1378 from 1182 last week given the push forward from the pending spring racing carnival distraction.

While listing numbers typically head higher the deeper into the spring selling season, this year they remain stubbornly weak.

Every capital city except Canberra had less weekend auction stock than a year ago.

Every capital city recorded a preliminary clearance higher than a year ago.

CoreLogic's Kevin Brogan noted the 2641 auctions scheduled for the week to Saturday was 16 percent below the 3143 of the same weekend last October. 

Domain had Reservoir and Richmond, in Melbourne, as the busiest suburbs for auctions across the nation with 21 residential homes set to go under the hammer.

They were followed by St Kilda (20) and Brighton (19) also have a relatively high number of auctions.

In Melbourne, Australia’s largest auction market, 81.8 percent of the 1,229 reported auctions sold this week.

"This is the second time this month the clearance rate for Melbourne has been above 80 per cent," Kevin Brogan said.

The 1,378 auctions held across Melbourne was lower than the 1,690 auctions held one year ago, when there was a notably lower clearance rate of 69.7 percent.

Melbourne's top sale was a Hawthorn house. The double fronted 1890s Hawthorn Grove house, (below) Brehon fetched $5.02 million with three bidders. 

It was listed by Jellis Craig with $4 million plus price guidance, then selling well above the $4.3 million reserve price set for the deceased estate which is one of the last unrenovated properties on the street. 

There was a $5.5 million top bid at Balwyn but it did not sell.

A West Footscray apartment (below) scored the nation's cheapest sale when a one bedroom unit sold for $200,000.

It was just $10,000 higher than its $190,000 sale in 2012. The one bedroom apartment had most recently been a $250 a week rental.

In Sydney, 866 auctions were held this week, down from 913 over the previous week.

"The preliminary clearance rate of 85.6 per cent is the highest recorded for the year to date," Kevin Brogan said.

Since the beginning of spring Sydney’s clearance rate has remained above 78 per cent.

The 85.6 per cent success rate sits significantly higher than this time last year, when a clearance rate of 61.3 per cent was recorded across 1,024 auctions.

The Blacktown region recorded the strongest clearance rate of 93.8 per cent across 22 auctions.

Sydney's top sale was a riverfront mansion which sold for $8.3 million at Tennyson Point (below) smashing its $7 million reserve.

The selling agent Matthew Ward said four registered bidders competed to own the home which was built eight years ago.

Brisbane was host to 192 auctions this week and so far 118 results have been reported, with 53.4 per cent of successful sales.

Brisbane's top sale was $2.8 million in East Brisbane when the quintessential Queenslander, Quambathella (below) was sold through Ray White.

It was listed by the Brisbane hairdresser, Jon LeCourt who founded the hairdressing chain Jon LeCourt Salons in the early 1970s.

He purchased the home in 1987 for $325,000.

Quambathella, built in the early 1900s by real estate agent George Blocksidge, sits on a prime 3644sq m block.

The cheapest Brisbane district sale was $285,000 at Eagleby. 

The four bedroom late 1970s house (above) had traded last in 1984 at $41,650.

Adelaide saw a preliminary clearance rate of 77.4 percent while Perth’s clearance rate was 46.2 percent across 33 auctions.

Canberra had a total of 64 auctions this week, compared to 72 last week and 58 at the same time last year. 

Canberra’s preliminary clearance rate of 74.4 percent was down on the previous week's 82.8 percent.