Combined capital city clearance rate below 65% for second week: CoreLogic RP Data's Shana Miller

Combined capital city clearance rate below 65% for second week: CoreLogic RP Data's Shana Miller
Shana MillerDecember 17, 2020

There were 2,493 auctions held across the combined capital cities this week, with a preliminary auction clearance rate of 63.3%, the second lowest clearance rate for the year.

Last week, a clearance rate of 64.9% across 3,143 capital city auctions was recorded. At the same time last year, auction volumes were lower than this week, with 2,033 properties taken to auction, however the clearance rate was stronger (68.1%). Clearance rates have been consistently trending lower, albeit on higher volumes, since April this year. The number of auctions being held so far across the Spring season is approximately 20% higher than what was recorded over the same period a year ago.

Click to enlarge

 

Melbourne’s clearance rate fell further this week, down to 65.4%, the second week in a row where the clearance rate has been below 70% after slipping to 69.7% last week. Auction volumes have also fallen in the lead up to Melbourne Cup, with 611 auctions held over the week, compared to 1,690 over the previous week. At the same time last year, the clearance rate was 69.6% across 220 auctions. Looking at Melbourne’s sub-regions, the North East region was the best performer in terms of clearance rates, with a 74.6% success rate across 72 auctions, followed by the Inner South region, where 72.9% of the 52 auctions sold.

Click to enlarge

 

In Sydney, 1,361 auctions were held this week, up from 1,024 over the previous week. The preliminary clearance rate of 63.5 per cent has increased from a low 61.3 per cent last week; however it is significantly lower than this time last year, when a clearance rate of 75.6 per cent was recorded across 1,259 auctions. Looking at the sub-regions of Sydney, the City and Inner South region recorded the strongest clearance rate of 73.9 per cent across 119 auctions, while the Eastern Suburbs had the highest volume of auctions (206).

Click to enlarge

 

The preliminary clearance rate in Brisbane this week was 58.2 per cent, up from 48.8 per cent over the previous week. Auction volumes were lower this week with 186 auctions held, down from 223 last week. Meanwhile, across the Gold Coast, 51 per cent of the 49 reported auctions were successful.

Click to enlarge

 

A total of 146 Adelaide homes were taken to auction this week, with a preliminary clearance rate of 58.1 per cent across 117 results. Last week, Adelaide was the strongest performer of all capital cities in terms of the clearance rate, recording a 70.3 per cent success rate across 91 reported auctions.

 

Click to enlarge

Perth’s clearance rate of 55.6 per cent across 49 auctions is up from the previous week, when 33 auctions were held and a clearance rate of 25.9 per cent was recorded.  Over the same week last year, the clearance rate was a lower 40 per cent, and 40 auctions were held.

Across Canberra a total of 130 auctions were held this week, the highest volumes have been all year, compared to 58 last week and 89 at the same time last year. Canberra’s preliminary clearance rate of 68.7 per cent is higher than it was the previous week (63.3 per cent).

In Tasmania, 6 auctions were reported to CoreLogic RP Data with 2 sales. Last week, 9 auctions were reported with 4 sales.

Shana Miller

Shana Miller is a research analyst with RP Data.

Editor's Picks