With 3,110 auctions held, last week was the combined capital's second busiest week of the year. The major auction markets drove the higher volumes, with Sydney and Melbourne both recording their second busiest weeks of the year.
Auction numbers were up 5.0% from the week prior (2,963) and were 14.5% higher than this time last year when 2,717 capital city homes were auctioned.
The combined capitals recorded a preliminary clearance rate of 66.9% - a slight step down from the previous week's preliminary rate of 67.0%, which revised down to the lowest final clearance rate of the year so far (60.7%). The easing in the early success rate appears to be driven by vendors, with 12.6% of the 2,087 results collected so far being withdrawn – the capitals’ highest withdrawal rate of the year-to-date. This time last year, 54.3% of auctions were successful.
Capital City Auction Statistics (Preliminary) – headline results
Sydney's auction activity overtook the week prior (1,081) as the city's second busiest week of the year, with 1,110 homes auctioned. The rise in auction numbers was accompanied by a -2.2 percentage point decline in Sydney's early clearance rate, with the city recording its lowest preliminary rate of the year-to-date (66.3% out of 756 results collected). The previous week's preliminary clearance rate of 68.5% was revised to 62.5% at final numbers, while this time last year, 55.4% of the 964 homes auctioned across the city recorded a successful result.
Capital City Auction Statistics over time
Melbourne hosted the busiest auction market among the capitals, with 1,432 homes taken under the hammer, up 4.1% from the week prior (1,375). With 1,005 results collected so far, Melbourne's preliminary clearance rate rose from 64.6% the previous week to 66.1% last week. Given that Melbourne's final clearance rate has held below 60% for three of the past five weeks, and the average downward revision over the past four weeks has been 6.6 percentage points, last week's final clearance rate is likely to settle around the 60% mark. Over the same week last year, 1,226 auctions were held across the city, and a final clearance rate of 56.0% was reported.
Across the smaller capitals, auction activity in Adelaide (191) inched higher, up 0.5% week-on-week, to overtake the previous week (190) as the city's busiest of the year. Brisbane (218) and Canberra (137) also saw a weekly rise in auction numbers, up 21.8% and 15.1% respectively. Adelaide was the most successful auction market last week, with a preliminary clearance rate of 80.7%, followed by Brisbane (67.7%). An early clearance rate of 60.8% was recorded in Canberra, while seven of the 22 auctions held in Perth last week returned successful results. No auctions were held in Tasmania.
Capital City Auction Statistics (Preliminary)
The above results are preliminary, with ‘final’ auction clearance rates published each Thursday. CoreLogic, on average, collects 99% of auction results each week. Clearance rates are calculated across properties that have been taken to auction over the past week.
Sub-region auction statistics (preliminary)
CoreLogic, on average, collects 99% of auction results each week. Clearance rates are calculated across properties that have been taken to auction over the past week.
The spring/summer auction season is now starting to wind down, with around 2,900 auctions expected this week before dropping to around 500 the week after as we head into the festive season.
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Meet Kaytlin Ezzy
Economist
As an economist, Kaytlin is a key member within CoreLogic’s research team. Highly efficient and flexible, she specialises in collating large and customised data sets, data visualisation and residential data reports.
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