Sydney auction rate strong despite COVID-19 outbreak

The property research house’s auctions summary for the week ending 20 June has revealed that there were 2,418 homes taken to auction across the combined capital cities last week, revising down from the 2,610 auctions predicted earlier in the week.

CoreLogic attributed the majority of the downwards revision to Melbourne once again.

The preliminary clearance rate across the combined capital cities was 77.8 per cent last week, compared with 77.4 per cent over the previous week, which revised down to a final clearance rate of 73.6 per cent.

There were 1,174 homes taken to auction across Sydney last week despite the growing coronavirus cluster in the NSW capital city, compared with 745 the previous week and 522 this time last year.

Sydney returned a preliminary clearance rate of 82.6 per cent, down from the previous week’s 78.5 per cent, which later revised down to 74.1 per cent at final figures.

Of the 781 sold results reported so far, 48.5 per cent were sold prior to auction, while only 7.7 per cent of Sydney auctions were reported as withdrawn, based on the results collected so far.

“With a relatively low withdrawal rate and high preliminary clearance rate, it looks like the recent outbreak hasn’t had a material impact on Sydney auction markets,” CoreLogic said in its auctions summary report.

The CoreLogic figures showed that there were 786 auctions held across Melbourne last week, revising down from the 935 originally scheduled.

There were 355 homes taken to auction over the previous week, while this time last year there were 588 auctions held across the city.

Melbourne returned a preliminary clearance rate of 71.5 per cent, down from the previous week’s 73 per cent, which revised down to 68.8 per cent at final figures.

Of the 465 sold results reported so far across Melbourne, 38.1 per cent of the homes were sold prior to auction.

Across the smaller capital cities, Brisbane recorded a preliminary success rate of 79.1 per cent across 186 auctions, while Canberra recorded a 78.1 per cent preliminary clearance rate across 109 auctions.

Adelaide recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 74.5 per cent across 143 auctions, while Perth recorded a 54.5 per cent preliminary success rate across 18 auctions, according to CoreLogic figures.

Home values continue to spike, mortgage activity plunges

Home values have continued their upward trajectory, with the CoreLogic Daily Home Value Index revealing that year to date, combined five capital city values (excluding Darwin and Hobart) rose by 11.4 per cent, while there was a 10.9 per cent spike over the past 12 months.

Home values increased by 1.9 per cent over the month, and 0.4 per cent over the week, the data showed.

The number of new properties listed for sale across the combined capital cities rose by 30.6 per cent over the past 12 months, but the total number of listings declined by 12.1 per cent over this period, the figures revealed.

CoreLogic data also showed that the month-on-month mortgage market activity declined by 12.9 per cent nationally, driven by a 19.5 per cent fall in Victoria, 17.6 per cent fall in Western Australia, 15 per cent fall in NSW, and a 12.5 per cent fall in Tasmania.

Housing finance activity recorded a more modest month-on-month decline in South Australia (down 5.9 per cent) and Queensland (down 2.1 per cent), CoreLogic figures showed.

[Related: APRA writes to lenders on home loan risks]

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.