Clearance rates continue to rise

According to CoreLogic’s Property Market Indicator Summary, auction markets continue to be strong as buyers flock to market, with last week (ending 14 February) recording a total of 1,529 auctions across the capital cities, up from 1,304 over the previous week.

Approximately 30 per cent of all auctions in capital cities sold prior to auction.

Of the 1,191 results collected so far, 86.1 per cent had reported a successful result, higher than the previous week’s preliminary auction clearance rate of 83.8 per cent (which revised down to 79.3 per cent at final figures).

Indeed, over the same week last year, 1,596 homes were taken to auction and 73.3 per cent of reported results were successful. 

Canberra again recorded the highest clearance rate of all capital cities, with the 65 auctions coming through with a preliminary clearance rate of 91.2 per cent. This was closely followed by Adelaide, whose 76 auctions resulted in a preliminary clearance rate of 89.5 per cent. 

Sydney also continued its strong showing, clearing 87.5 per cent of the 624 auctions taking place over the week. This was marginally down on the preliminary clearance rate of 89.1 per cent the week prior. However, the number of properties going to market has risen – up from 447 the previous week and 583 from the same week in 2020.

Interestingly, Melbourne recorded a preliminary clearance rate of 87.8 per cent last week, despite the snap lockdown threatening to derail the booming market through physical restriction on inspecting and transacting property.

Nearly half of Melbourne’s successful auctions were sold prior to auction. While 8 per cent were withdrawn, CoreLogic suggested that this figure might increase on final figures, due to the circuit-breaker lockdown which was announced on Friday (12 February).

According to CoreLogic data, the Central Coast topped the list, with a clearance rate of 100 per cent of all 13 auctions clearing.

Sydney’s Northern Beaches also performed strongly, with 94.7 per cent of the 44 auctions taking place clearing.

The CoreLogic data showed that home values in the five major capital cities rose by 0.5 per cent over the week last week, bringing year-to-date increase to 1.4 per cent.

The analytics company also found that its mortgage market activity index had risen 49.7 per cent month-on-month.

[Related: Auctions spike after ‘slowdown’]