Melbourne gears up for 1,000 plus auctions: RP Data's weekend preview

There are 1,090 auctions scheduled this week in Melbourne compared to 984 for the same time last year.

The highest volume of auctions this week is in Reservoir with 24 expected followed by 23 in Hawthorn and 22 in Brighton.

Last week was the 12th time this year where in excess of 1,000 auctions were recorded; the highest for year was 1,510 in mid April. In 2013 there were 11 weeks with more than 1,000 auctions and in 2012 there was four.

Given an increase in auctions as a popular mechanism for selling, the prevalence of 1,000 plus auctions each week is much higher than ever before, making weeks of 1,500 plus a more significant indicator of confidence from vendors. There were four weeks with more than 1,500 auctions last year, all after the AFL Grand Final. There is no reason this won’t be repeated this year.

Time on market results for houses sold at private sale fell from 45 days to 44 days over the last week whilst vendor discounting fell from -5.6% to -5.4%.

Key data

• Clearance rate week ending 14 September: 73.4%
  
  
• Melbourne auctions expected week ending 21 September: 1,090
  
  
• Melbourne private sales time on market week ending 14 September: 44 days (houses)
  
  
• Melbourne vendor discounting market week ending 14 September: -5.4% (houses)
  
  
• Listings being prepared for market are 0.4% higher in month ending 14 September (seasonally adjusted)

With a vast majority of homes sold in the last financial year now settled, it is possible to calculate some of the key numbers in the Melbourne market.

• Suburbs with the lowest number of house sales: Narre Warren East, Gilderoy, Sherbrooke, Tremont and Gruyere. Each only recorded one sale
  
  
• Suburbs with the biggest spend by house buyers; Brighton ($805m), Glen Waverley ($613m), Kew ($592m), Toorak ($576m) and Balwyn North ($502m)
  
  
• Suburbs with the biggest spend by apartment buyers; Melbourne ($649m), Southbank ($378m), South Yarra ($353m), Docklands ($346m) and Brighton ($307m)
  
  
• Suburb with the most house sales over $2m, Brighton with 147
  
  
• Suburbs with the largest house blocks sold; Park Orchards, Belgrave South, Kalorama, The Patch and Sassafras
  
  
• Suburbs with the largest increase in sale price for houses: Ashburton, Balwyn North, Fairfield, Kew East and Balwyn
  
  
• Municipalities with the largest increase in sale price for houses: Monash, Glen Eira, Manningham, Whitehorse and Yarra
  
  
• Municipalities with the least increase in sale price for houses: Hume, Cardinia, Mornington Peninsula, Nillumbik and Brimbank
  
  
• Suburbs with the least increase in median advertised rents for houses: Brighton, South Melbourne, Middle Park, Sandringham and Armadale
  
  
• Suburbs with the largest increase in median advertised rents for houses: Balwyn, Caulfield South, Fitzroy North, Beaumaris and Carlton
  
  
• Suburbs with the highest proportion of houses advertised for sale: Mount Eliza, Taylors Hill, Point Cook, Pakenham and Mount Martha