Auction clearance rates bounce nationwide

Property research group CoreLogic’s latest Quarterly Auction Market Summary has revealed that over the three months to 30 June 2019, auction clearance rates across Australia’s combined capital cities rose to 55.5 per cent, up from 49.9 per cent in the March quarter.

Clearance rates bounced in six of the major capitals, with Adelaide and Perth the only cities to record declines.

Hobart recorded the sharpest improvement over the quarter, with its clearance rates increasing by 15.2 percentage points, from 44.8 per cent to 60 per cent.

The Tasmanian capital also recorded the highest overall clearance rate for the June quarter, closely followed by Melbourne (59.5 per cent), Sydney (59.1 per cent), Canberra (50.8 per cent), Adelaide (47 per cent), Brisbane (32.3 per cent) and Perth (27.4 per cent).

Reflecting on the data, CoreLogic analyst Cameron Kusher said that the quarterly spike further supported claims of a recovery in the housing market, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne.

“Auction results are highly correlated with housing market conditions in Sydney and Melbourne, while other capital cities generally show a much smaller proportion of properties are taken to auction,” he said.

“The improved trend in auction market results provides further evidence that housing conditions are stabilising, especially in Sydney and Melbourne, where a trend towards higher clearance rates has been most pronounced.”

However, CoreLogic’s research also found that when compared to the same quarter last year, clearance rates fell from 57.8 per cent, a trend that was consistent across six of the major capital cities.

Sydney and Hobart were the only capitals to record improvements in the 12 months to 30 June 2019, with clearance rates increasing by 3.1 percentage points and 2.9 percentage points, respectively.

Moreover, despite increasing by 19 per cent over the June quarter, auction volumes fell 30 per cent when compared to the same quarter in 2018, from a combined total of 25,824 across Australia’s capital cities to 18,104.

As at 30 June 2019, Melbourne was home to largest number of auctions (7,838), followed by Sydney (6,776), Brisbane (1,380), Adelaide (1,082), Canberra (578), Perth (409) and Hobart (41).

[Related: ‘Meaningful’ housing recovery still ‘a way off’]