Auction volumes rise across capital cities

Figures from CoreLogic has shown that there were 1,262 homes taken to auction on the week ending 21 June, returning a preliminary auction clearance rate of 66.1 per cent.

This was up from the 63.3 per cent preliminary clearance rate last week across 1,181 auctions, which later revised down to 59.3 per cent at final figures.

Both Melbourne and Sydney’s preliminary clearance rate came in above the mid-60 per cent mark last week.

There were 564 Melbourne homes scheduled for auction in the week ending 21 June, increasing on the 471 auctions during the week prior. The city returned a preliminary success rate of 65.8 per cent, rising on the previous week’s preliminary result of 61.0 per cent, which by final result came in at 56.3 per cent.

Last year, Melbourne returned both a higher success rate and higher volumes, with 635 auctions and a clearance rate of 68.9 per cent.

Sydney returned a preliminary clearance rate of 68.5 per cent last week, up on the 67.3 per cent preliminary figure in the week prior, which later came in at 63.7 per cent by final results.

This week’s improved Sydney clearance rate was across a slightly lower volume of auctions over the week, with 526 scheduled from 545 the previous week.

One year ago, 558 Sydney homes were taken to auction, returning a final clearance rate of 60.9 per cent.

The auction markets performance was mixed across the smaller cities. Canberra continued to have the highest clearance rate of the capital city markets, which has been a trend seen over the past four weeks.

The preliminary clearance rate across Canberra for the week ending 21 June was 73.3 per cent across a total of 37 auctions.

A total of 79 homes went to auction in Brisbane, with a preliminary clearance rate of 58.1 per cent, while Adelaide’s clearance rate was 65.0 per cent across a total of 41 homes taken to auction.

Perth returned the lowest preliminary clearance rate of only 20.0 per cent across just 14 homes that were taken to auction.

Auction volumes and clearance rates have gradually increased over the past few weeks as social distancing measures to curtail the spread of the coronavirus have eased. This includes allowing on-site auctions and recommencing property inspections across the states.

However, the numbers have not yet caught up to last year’s levels of auction volumes and clearance rates.

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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.