Auction markets maintain growth

CoreLogic has found that 2,446 homes were taken to auction across the combined capital cities in the week ending 23 February, returning a preliminary auction clearance rate of 77.7 per cent.

In comparison, 1,596 auctions were held last week, returning a final clearance rate of 73.3 per cent. The figures are demonstrably higher than the same period last year, when 2,293 homes were taken to auction across the combined capital cities, returning a final auction clearance rate of just 49.4 per cent.

Melbourne and Sydney tracking higher

Melbourne recorded the highest number of homes taken to auction for the week ending 23 February, with 1,215 auctions, which returned a preliminary auction clearance rate of 79.6 per cent.

Indeed, Melbourne saw its highest final clearance rate for the previous week (ending 16 February) since September last year, with a rate of 76 per cent from 743 auctions.

In the same week in 2019, the clearance rate was just 50.6 per cent across 1,128 auctions.

CoreLogic data also showed that there were 938 auctions held in Sydney last week, returning a preliminary clearance rate of 81.5 per cent – up markedly from the same period last year when 50.2 per cent of the 801 auctions cleared.

The final auction clearance rate for Sydney last week was 75.4 per cent of 583 auctions.

Among the remaining capital cities, Brisbane saw 97 homes go under the hammer, with a preliminary clearance rate of 62.7 per cent.

In comparison, the clearance rate was just 37 per cent from 122 homes that went to auction in the corresponding period last year.

In Adelaide, there were 89 homes taken to auction last week with a 52.1 per cent clearance rate, compared with 112 homes going to auction last year, and a clearance rate of 49 per cent.

[Related: Auction clearance rates spike year-on-year]

Malavika Santhebennur is the features editor on the mortgages titles at Momentum Media.

Before joining the team in 2019, Malavika held roles with Money Management and Benchmark Media. She has been writing about financial services for the past six years.