The auction market ended the spring selling season with a whimper as the preliminary combined capitals clearance rate fell to 63.4%, on par with the first week of November as the lowest early clearance rate of the year so far.
The soft result occurred against a sizeable number of auctions. 2,680 capital city homes went under the hammer last week, 40 more than the previous week (2,640) and the eighth highest volume of auctions held through the year to-date.
1,193 auctions were held in Melbourne, up from 1,161 the previous week, but still ‘only’ the ninth highest volume of weekly auctions held in 2024 so far. 64.1% of auctions have been successful so far — the third lowest result of the spring selling season. The result is also lower than the previous week’s preliminary auction clearance rate, which came in at 65.2% and revised down to 56.4%.
Historical clearance rates utilise the final auction clearance rate, while the current week is based on the preliminary clearance rate.
Sydney hosted 1,029 auctions last week, the sixth highest weekly volume so far this year and the fifth highest through the spring selling season. So far, 65.1% of auctions have been reported as successful, the fourth lowest preliminary clearance rate so far this year. This was also down from 68.4% a week earlier which revised lower to 59.0% on final numbers (the fifth week in a row where Sydney’s final auction clearance rate has been below the 60% mark).
Across the smaller capitals, Brisbane hosted the most auctions with 175 homes taken under the hammer, well down on the week prior, which likely marked the seasonal peak in auction activity across the city, when 235 homes went to auction. 52.9% of Brisbane auctions have been reported as successful so far, the third lowest preliminary auction clearance rate this year to-date.
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.
171 homes went to auction in Adelaide, the fourth highest volume of auctions held so far this year. With 66.3% of auctions collected so far recording a successful outcome, this was on par with the previous week as Adelaide’s lowest preliminary clearance rate through the year to-date.
95 auctions were in held across the ACT with 54.3% selling based on the early results. Only 16 homes were auctioned in Perth with half reporting a successful result. There was just one home auctioned in Tasmania although the result is yet to be collected.
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.
This week we are expecting around 2,490 auctions to be held as the selling season starts to wind down. It looks like the peak volume for spring occurred relatively early this year, with the volume of auctions peaking at 3,135 over the last week of October.
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Meet Caitlin Fono
Sr Associate, Research Support
Caitlin has spent more than a decade working with property data and analytics in various roles, earning a position on the CoreLogic research team in 2013. As a respected and highly experienced research analyst, Caitlin works with high frequency data sets, regularly updating our widely read auction reporting, weekly activity updates and customised data briefs.
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