Auction volumes decline nationally

CoreLogic data for week ending 4 October, which was a long weekend in some parts of Australia, revealed that there were 657 homes taken to auction, down from the 1,082 auctions held during the week prior.

Of the 530 results collected so far, 69.3 per cent were successful, slightly lower than last week’s preliminary figure of 70.5 per cent, which by final collection on Wednesday revised down to 64.2 per cent.

Over the same week last year, a final clearance rate of 67.6 per cent was reported across a higher 1,324 auctions.

In Melbourne, auction activity has remained at near record lows amid restrictions imposed to contain the second wave of the coronavirus, with 57 scheduled auctions last week, which was slightly above the 40 auctions during the previous week and only 11 auctions two weeks ago.

Of the 49 results collected so far, 31 were successful and 16, or one-third of all auctions, were withdrawn, equating to a preliminary clearance rate of 63.3 per cent.

The figures showed that 61.3 per cent of sold results reportedly sold prior to the scheduled auction event.

One year ago, 775 Melbourne homes went under the hammer, with a 70.5 per cent success rate.

The number of new property listings for sale over the 28 days ending 4 October declined at a lower level in Melbourne, dropping 56.8 per cent over the last 12 months to 3,284 listings.

“As restrictions ease across Melbourne, we are expecting auction numbers to rise substantially,” CoreLogic said in its property market indicator summary.

Sydney on the other hand accounted for 66 per cent of all auction activity last week, with 435 auctions held across the city. This was down from the 812 auctions held the previous week, which was the busiest recorded week since April.

Of the 354 results collected so far, 259 were sold, providing a preliminary success rate of 73.2 per cent.

This time last year, there were 317 auctions held in Sydney, with a final clearance rate of 74.7 per cent.

Across the other capital cities last week, Canberra returned the highest preliminary clearance rate of 75.6 per cent across 49 auctions, while Brisbane held 60 auctions with a preliminary success rate of 48.8 per cent.

Adelaide held 37 auctions with a preliminary clearance rate of 62.1 per cent, while Perth held 19 auctions with a preliminary success rate of 62.5 per cent.

[Related: Melbourne homes linger longer on market]

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.