Auction success rate jumps as volumes slump

There were 1,162 homes taken to auction during the week ending 2 August, returning a preliminary clearance rate of 65.3 per cent, according to CoreLogic.

The Property Market Indicator Summary stated that this was higher than the previous week’s preliminary results of 59.2 per cent, which was later revised down to 54.1 per cent.

One year ago, a total of 1,108 homes were taken to auction across the capital cities, returning a final auction clearance rate of 66.4 per cent.

There were 351 homes scheduled for auction in Melbourne last week, lower than the 540 over the week prior. This drop can be partly attributed to the new lockdown measures placed across Melbourne and some of greater Melbourne in July, for a period of six weeks.

The lower volumes, as well as fewer withdrawn auctions that were recorded last week, boosted Melbourne’s preliminary success rate to 59.8 per cent.

Of the 296 results collected so far, 86 (or 29 per cent) were withdrawn results, considerably lower than the 217 withdrawn results during the previous week (40 per cent withdrawal rate).

Of the sold results collected, just under 50 per cent reportedly sold prior to the scheduled auction date.

One year ago, 500 Melbourne homes were auctioned, returning a final clearance rate of 70.9 per cent.

A total of 578 homes went under the hammer in Sydney last week, returning a preliminary clearance rate of 68.2 per cent.

This was an improvement on the previous week’s final clearance rate of 60.6 per cent across a slightly higher 594 auctions.

Over the same week last year, Sydney recorded lower volumes of 386 auctions with a 72 per cent success rate.

Across the other combined capital cities, both Adelaide and Canberra returned the highest preliminary clearance rate of 80 per cent.

Both Adelaide and Canberra saw lower volumes of homes taken to auction, at 51 and 58, respectively.

Brisbane returned a preliminary clearance rate of 58.6 per cent out of the 111 homes that were taken to auction, while in Perth there were only 12 auctions with a preliminary clearance rate of only 22.2 per cent.

While numbers look strong, volumes are generally trending lower, CoreLogic noted.

The research body found that capital city properties listed for sale are down 12.3 per cent on the last 12 months. This has been particularly driven by a 42 per cent drop in Darwin and a 23 per cent drop in Hobart, when compared with last year.

[Related: Home buyer appetite remains strong]

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.