Melbourne racing toward 1600-plus Super Saturday as auction clearance rates softening
This weekend 1,140 auctions are anticipated across Melbourne, while next weekend a mere 1,000 auctions are tipped, according to the REIV.
However, both weekends are set to be smashed on the pre-Derby Day weekend of 28/29 October when 1,610 auctions are scheduled. That level is very close to the 2015 record weekend.
On Derby Day, just days before the 2017 Melbourne Cup weekend, it will be the calm after the storm - in Melbourne, agents have just the 180 auctions.
This week, CoreLogic is tracking just over 2,300 auctions across the combined capital cities, which is similar to last week when 2,318 auctions were held, but lower than this time last year, when 2,443 homes were taken to auction.
Across the two largest auction markets, Sydney and Melbourne, volumes are similar this week when compared to last week.
Melbourne is expecting 1,122 auctions to be held this week, compared to 1,119 last week, while Sydney is set to see 850 homes go up for auction, up from 818 last week.
Over the same week last year, Melbourne held 1,182 auctions, while there were 913 auctions in Sydney.
Melbourne is host to the busiest individual suburbs for auctions, with 18 auctions in Reservoir, followed by Epping (17) and Glen Waverley (16).
Bentleigh East, Richmond and St Kilda each have 15 auctions scheduled this week, according to CoreLogic.
Looking at the smaller auction markets, volumes will fall slightly in some cities. Adelaide has 84 auctions scheduled this week, down from 107 last week, while Canberra is set to hold 58 auctions, compared to 78 last week.
There are 151 auctions scheduled in Brisbane this week, similar to the 153 held last week across the city.
Perth is expecting 37 auctions this week, compared to 35 last week, while Tasmania is likely to see fewer auctions with 4 homes currently scheduled for auction, down from eight last week.
Summary of Last Week’s results
The final clearance rate across the combined capital cities continues to soften, with last week recording a final clearance rate of 64.4%, down from 66.3% over the previous week, making it the lowest clearance rate since January 2016.
There were 2,318 homes taken to auction last week, similar to this time last year (2,290), while over the previous week, just 969 auctions were held due to the public holiday long weekend in most states, along with the AFL and NRL Grand Finals.
Clearance rates across Melbourne and Sydney fell week-on-week, with Sydney recording a clearance rate of 61.3% across 818 auctions, down from 64.9% across 607 auctions the previous week, and lower than this time last year, when 79.8% of the 816 auctions were successful.
The last time Sydney has seen a clearance rate this low was late 2015/early 2016.
Melbourne recorded a clearance rate of 70.3% across 1,119 auctions last week, down from 87.0% across just 122 auctions the previous week, and 78.4% across 1,114 over the same week last year.
While clearance rates fell across the capital cities week-on-week, auctions volumes increased across all of the capital cities.
Looking at the non-capital city regions, the Hunter region was the most successful in terms of clearance rates with 76.9% of the 33 auctions recording a successful result, closely followed by Geelong, where a clearance rate of 76.7% was recorded across 54 auctions.