Preliminary clearance rate remains below 70 percent for the second week in a row: CoreLogic RP Data's Shana Miller
This week 1,426 auctions were held across the combined capital cities, substantially lower than the 2,304 held last week and the 2,556 held one year ago.
This coming Monday is a public holiday for four out of the eight states and territories, which has been a key factor in the fall in auction volumes. The combined capital city clearance rate softened this week, down from 68.6 percent last week to 66.4 percent this week.
The two largest auction markets, Melbourne and Sydney, saw their preliminary clearance remain above the 70 percent mark, with Sydney at 72 percent and Melbourne at 70.5 percent, while the highest clearance rate was in Canberra where 75 percent of auctions cleared over the weekend.
The capital city weighted average was pulled lower by softer clearance rates in Brisbane (44 percent), Perth (46.7 percent) and Tasmania (33.3 percent). One year ago, the weighted average clearance rate was 77.2 percent, substantially stronger than the current result.
Only 414 Melbourne auctions were held this week with a preliminary clearance rate of 70.5 percent. This week’s result shows a slight decrease in the clearance rate for the city, after final results saw Melbourne’s clearance rate at 72.1 percent last week. Over the corresponding week last year, Melbourne’s clearance rate was 78.0 percent across 1,269 auctions. Although the city’s auction activity was quieter this week, there were still sub-regions where auction volumes were relatively high, with Melbourne’s Inner region host to 74 auctions and the West region host to 56 auctions. In terms of clearance rate, North West was the best performer, with 80.6 percent of reported auctions successful this week, followed by Inner South (79.2 percent).
Sydney was the busiest capital city auction market this week, with 680 auctions held and a preliminary clearance rate of 72.0 percent. On the final numbers for last week, 68.7 percent of Sydney auctions were successful, while one year ago the clearance rate was 83.9 percent, significantly stronger than the current results for the city. The number of homes taken to auction this year is also lower than last year when 926 auctions were held. Sydney’s strongest performing sub-regions this week were Ryde (86.2per cent), Eastern Suburbs (84.5 percent) and Inner West (78.6 percent).
This week 44.0 percent of Brisbane auctions were successful based on preliminary results. There were 151 auctions held in the city, up from 133 last week and 132 at the same time last year. Last week Brisbane’s clearance rate was 50.9 percent, while one year ago it was 47.0 percent. Further south, on the Gold Coast 34 auctions were held this week. Preliminary results show 16 auction outcomes having been reported with a clearance rate of 50.0 percent.
Adelaide’s preliminary results show 54.2 percent of auctions were successful this week, compared to 65.9 per cent last week and 66.7 percent one year ago. The number of auctions across the city fell to 93 this week, compared to 99 over the previous week.
There were 35 Perth auctions held this week. Perth’s clearance rate shows a higher level of volatility due to the small proportion of homes being sold via the auction method. Over the year to date, Perth’s clearance rate has been recorded as low as 21.7 percent the week before last and as high as 46.7 percent this week, across just 15 results. Prior to this week, the highest result for the city was recorded over the final week of January when 44 percent of the 25 reported auctions were successful.
Canberra has recorded another strong result this week with a preliminary clearance rate of 75.0 percent. The number of homes auctioned across the city this week was significantly lower than last week, falling from 88 to 34. At the same time last year 68.8 percent of the 71 auctions were sold.
There were 12 Tasmanian auction results reported this week and based on these preliminary results, 4 have sold.