High auction withdrawals persist in Melbourne

Data released by the property research group has shown that while auction volumes have remained extremely low in Melbourne as it continues to face lockdown restrictions, there was a slight uptick in auction volumes last week compared with the week prior.

In the week ending 27 September, there were 60 auctions scheduled across the city, returning a preliminary clearance rate of only 28.6 per cent.

Of the 49 results collected so far, 31 were withdrawn from the market, and of the 14 properties that did sell, 93 per cent sold prior to auction.

“While volumes did increase over the week, the high withdrawal rate and high proportion of properties selling prior to the auction suggest vendors remain reluctant to test the market through the lockdown period,” CoreLogic said in its property market indicator summary.

The number of new properties listed for sale continued to tumble in Melbourne, with 1,675 new listings over the past 28 days to 27 September, a 75.3 per cent drop over the past 12 months.

Nationally, there were 1,107 homes taken to auction last week, and of the 841 results collected so far, there was a 70.5 per cent preliminary clearance rate. This was slightly lower than the 72.4 per cent preliminary figure from the previous week.

According to CoreLogic, the previous week’s final clearance rate of 67.6 per cent was the highest rate since early March.

This time last year, a higher 1,278 capital city homes were auctioned with a final clearance rate of 71 per cent.

In Sydney, the number of auctions has been trending consistently higher in contrast with Melbourne. There were 815 homes taken to auction last week, which was the highest volume recorded since April.

The preliminary clearance rate in Sydney was 74.8 per cent, which was an improvement on the previous week’s preliminary figure of 72.4 per cent, which later revised down to 67.5 per cent at final collection.

One year ago, 950 auctions were held in Sydney with a final success rate of 74.5 per cent.

Across the other capital cities, Canberra returned the highest preliminary clearance rate of 84.9 per cent across 64 auctions, while in Brisbane there were 85 auctions with a preliminary clearance rate of 50.0 per cent.

A total of 71 homes went under the hammer in Adelaide, with a preliminary clearance rate of 77.3 per cent.

[Related: Inner-city rent values hit harder amid COVID-19]

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.