Auction volumes second-highest year-to-date

Property research group CoreLogic’s auctions data for the week ending 14 March has revealed that there were 2,232 homes taken to auction last week, returning a preliminary auction clearance rate of 83.2 per cent.

This was slightly lower than the previous week’s preliminary rate of 84.5 per cent, which later revised down to 80 per cent as final results were collected.

CoreLogic stated that a similar 2,274 auctions were held over the same week last year, but close to 20 per cent fewer homes were sold (65.3 per cent).

The figures have also revealed that houses have been the “standout performer” so far in 2021, with clearance rates above 80 per cent for seven consecutive weeks now, while an average of 70 per cent of units have sold at auction this year.

In Melbourne, 1,094 properties were taken to auction last week, returning a preliminary clearance rate of 80.3 per cent, compared with only 487 homes taken to auction the previous week with a clearance rate of 75.2 per cent.

Last year, during the same period, 1,201 auctions were held, with a 65.6 per cent clearance rate.

There were 817 properties taken to auction in Sydney last week, with a preliminary clearance rate of 87.4 per cent.

According to CoreLogic, once the auction results are finalised, this is likely to be the sixth consecutive week the city has cleared the 80 per cent success rate mark.

In Sydney last week, the final clearance rate was 82.9 per cent across a lower 789 auctions, while one year ago, 68.1 per cent of the 767 auctions were sold.

Across the smaller auction markets, Canberra returned the highest preliminary success rate, at 95.0 per cent out of a total 92 auctions.

In Adelaide, there were 101 auctions with a preliminary clearance rate of 87.9 per cent, but Brisbane returned a lower preliminary clearance rate of just 65.2 per cent across 110 auctions.

CoreLogic stated that it is currently tracking a higher volume of 2,700 scheduled auction across the country in the coming week.

New property listings have increased marginally across the combined capitals (1.9 per cent) over the past 12 months, with the capitals registering varying results.

While listings dropped by 9.0 per cent over the 12 months in Sydney and 7.4 per cent in Darwin, it increased by 34.3 per cent in Perth and 1.4 per cent in Melbourne.

Meanwhile, demand for housing finance has continued to climb across the country, with home loan activity registering a 17.5 per cent rise month-on-month nationally.

NSW led the increase among the states, where activity rose by 32.1 per cent month-on-month, while it increased by 15.2 per cent in Queensland, 11.3 per cent in Western Australia, 9.8 per cent in Tasmania, 9.6 per cent in Victoria and 2.4 per cent in South Australia.

The CoreLogic data also shows that home values recorded a weekly increase of 0.8 per cent and a monthly increase of 2.6 per cent across the combined five capital cities.

Values rose by 4.0 per cent year-to-date, while there was a 3.1 per cent increase in home values over the past 12 months, the figures show.

[Related: Rising house prices temper buyer interest: Westpac]

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.