Capital cities post strong week of auction activity

CoreLogic’s latest Property Market Indicator revealed that auction activity burgeoned across the capital cities last week (ending 12 February), with the number of auctions more than doubling compared to the prior week in Sydney and Melbourne.

Auction volumes rose week-on-week across all of the capital cities, except for Adelaide, which posted a decline.

The total auctions in Sydney increased from 255 to 633, Melbourne from 255 to 542, Brisbane from 99 to 129 and Perth from 35 to 74.

Auction volumes also increased in Tasmania from 11 to 13 and in Canberra from 69 to 86.

Meanwhile, Adelaide recorded a fall in auction volumes from 143 to 87.

Overall, there were 1,564 properties taken to auction across the combined capitals last week, compared to 881 the week before.

At the same time last year, auction volumes were lower, with 1,400 capital city auctions held with a lower rate of clearance (71.8 per cent).

The two largest auction markets, Sydney and Melbourne, recorded a preliminary clearance rate of 84.8 per cent and 75.4 per cent respectively.

Meanwhile, despite the surge in the number of auctions held, CoreLogic noted that the combined capitals region recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 76.6 per cent. However, this was still up from the prior week when the final clearance rate dipped to 68.7 per cent.

[Related: Auction clearance rates are not fading through Spring as in previous years]