Preliminary auction clearance rates nudge higher over the week

The amount of auction activity across the capital cities increased this week, up from 2,916 last week to 3,147 this week; the largest number of auctions since the last week of February 2017 when 3,301 auctions were held. This time last year was the Easter long weekend, so auction volumes were substantially lower, with 554 homes taken to auction across the combined capital cities. This week’s preliminary weighted average clearance rate across the combined capitals was 77.1 per cent, increasing from 74.1 per cent over the previous week and up from 70.9 per cent one year ago. Sydney saw the highest preliminary clearance rate across the cities at 81.1 per cent, while across the remaining cities; clearance rates increased week-on week with the exception of Brisbane and Perth where clearance rates fell.

There were 1,601 Melbourne auctions this week, making it the busiest capital city for auctions this week and the second busiest week for Melbourne this year. Across the 1,391 reported results, 79.9 per cent were successful this week, up from 77.0 per cent last week and higher than the 71.4 per cent recorded last year when just 78 Melbourne auctions were held. This week’s strongest performing Melbourne sub-region was the North West with 91.7 per cent of auctions clearing, followed by the Mornington Peninsula region (88.1 per cent) based on preliminary results.

A total of 1,082 homes were auctioned in Sydney this week, with preliminary results returning a clearance rate of 81.1 per cent, the strongest clearance rate for Sydney so far this year, so it will be interesting to see what happens once the remaining results are collected. Last week, across the 1,001 auctions in the city, 76.8 per cent of results were successful. In comparison, over the same week last year, 349 Sydney auctions were held and the clearance rate was 77.9 per cent. The busiest regions for auctions across Sydney this week were North Sydney and Hornsby (151 auctions) and Inner South West (124 auctions), while clearance rates ranged from as high as 91.3 per cent in Northern Beaches to as low as 63.8 per cent in Parramatta.

Across Brisbane, auction volumes rose from 179 last week to 196 this week, with a preliminary clearance rate of 44.0 per cent, compared to 50.0 per cent last week. At this time last year, 48 auctions were held with a success rate of 45.0 per cent. The Gold Coast was host to 57 auctions this week and based on the 26 results reported to CoreLogic so far, 50.0 per cent have been sold.

Preliminary results show that 68.2 per cent of the 124 Adelaide auctions were successful this week, up from last week (57.4 per cent), and higher than one year ago when 66.7 per cent of the 32 auctions held were successful.

Perth’s preliminary auction clearance rate was 30.8 per cent this week across 13 results. Last week, 42 results were captured across the city, with 61.9 per cent having sold. This time last year, 6 auction results were reported with a 100 per cent success rate.

Based on preliminary results, 78.4 per cent of Canberra auctions were successful this week, up from 72.9 per cent last week and higher than one year ago (58.3 per cent). There were 104 auctions held in Canberra this week, 114 last week and 26 at the same time last year.

There were 7 auctions held in Tasmania this week with 5 successful