Melbourne auctions gather pace

CoreLogic auctions figures for the week ending 18 October revealed that Melbourne saw a substantial rise in scheduled auctions volumes, with 188 homes going under the hammer.

This figure was up from the 59 auctions held in the previous week, and represented the largest number of auctions in two months.

Of the 143 results collected so far, 93 were successful and 14 were withdrawn, equating to a preliminary clearance rate of 65 per cent and a withdrawal rate of 10 per cent.

Of the sold results collected, 27 per cent sold prior to the scheduled auction event, which was much lower than recent trends, where a high proportion of auctions have been selling prior to the auction being held.

The number of new properties advertised for sale in Melbourne has also been steadily rising, with 6,974 new listings over the 28 days ending 18 October, an 8.4 per cent drop over the past 12 months.

The Victorian government announced on 18 October that real estate auctions for both residential and commercial properties will be permitted outdoors with a limit of 10 people, plus the minimum number of people required to conduct the auction.

Commercial real estate pre-arranged inspections with one agent and one prospective purchaser or tenant has also been permitted as the state looks to gradually loosen lockdown restrictions amid falling coronavirus cases.

Nationally, the combined capital city preliminary auction clearance rate improved last week as volumes rose. There were 1,134 homes taken to auction, up from the 1,084 auctions held the previous week.

Of the 878 results collected so far, 72.4 per cent were successful, higher than the previous week’s preliminary figure of 71.5 per cent, which revised down to 66.4 per cent at final collection.

Over the same week last year, a final clearance rate of 72.1 per cent was reported across a higher volume of 1,955 auctions.

Across the capital cities, Sydney comprised 60 per cent of all auction activity, with 707 homes taken to auction, although down from the previous week’s 751 auctions.

Of the 560 results collected so far, the city returned a preliminary clearance rate of 75.9 per cent.

The previous week’s final clearance rate was 67.2 per cent, while this time last year, there were 727 auctions held in the city with a final clearance rate of 79.2 per cent.

In Canberra, a total of 59 homes went under the hammer last week, returning the highest preliminary clearance rate across all the capital cities of 85.7 per cent across the 49 results collected so far.

Adelaide was host to 78 auctions, returning a preliminary clearance rate of 70.6 per cent across the 51 results collected thus far, while Brisbane returned a preliminary success rate of 54.7 per cent across 53 results collected out of a total of 74 auctions.

Perth held 26 auctions and returned a preliminary clearance rate of 55.0 per cent across 20 results collected thus far.

[Related: Policy measures buffer housing sales loss]

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.