Auction success rate highest since March: CoreLogic

The property research group has released auctions data for the week ended 26 September, which has shown that there were 1,631 homes taken to auction across the combined capital cities last week, with a preliminary clearance rate of 82.4 per cent.

This marked the highest preliminary success rate recorded across the combined capital cities since late March 2021. CoreLogic attributed this to a sharp drop in the number of withdrawn auctions across Melbourne and Canberra.

In the previous week, there were 1,672 auctions with a preliminary auction clearance rate of 74.6 per cent, revising up to 75.1 per cent at final figures.

This time last year, there were 1,082 auctions held with a 64.2 per cent success rate.

In Sydney, it was the busiest auction week since late June last week, while the preliminary success rate was the highest since the week ended 18 April.

This was despite the continued lockdowns in Sydney, where inspections can currently only be conducted by private appointment for one person only and in-person auctions are prohibited.

The city played host to 841 auctions last week, and posted a preliminary clearance rate of 84.3 per cent.

Sydney’s auction numbers last week overtook the previous week’s 786 auctions (with a preliminary clearance rate of 82.3 per cent, revising down to 80.5 per cent at final figures).

This time last year, there were 812 auctions, with 65.4 per cent of the reported auctions successful.

There were 343 homes taken to auction in Melbourne, with just 16.1 per cent withdrawn, which pushed the preliminary clearance rate up to 77.2 per cent.

This was the highest preliminary clearance rate the city has witnessed since the week ended 23 May.

“Vendor confidence is improving with the return of one-on-one property inspections in Melbourne, and this can be seen in the lower withdrawal rates, leading to higher clearance rates,” CoreLogic said.

Of the 196 sold results, 37.8 per cent were sold prior to the scheduled auction rate.

In the previous week, there were 431 auctions held in Melbourne, with 35.9 per cent reported as withdrawn, and returning a preliminary auction clearance rate of 56.4 per cent, revising up to 58.5 per cent at final figures.

This time last year, only 40 auctions were held in Victoria’s capital city.

Across the smaller auction markets, Adelaide was the best performing last week, with a preliminary auction clearance rate of 87.7 per cent across 166 auctions, followed by Canberra (85.9 per cent across 80 auctions), and Brisbane (79.7 per cent across 187 auctions).

Capital city home values have surged by 16.9 per cent year-to-date and 18.9 per cent in the last 12 months across the combined five capital cities (excluding Darwin and Hobart).

Values recorded a 0.3 per cent weekly rise and a 1.2 per cent monthly rise.

The number of new properties listed for sale increased by 30.7 per cent across the combined capital cities, but total listings have dropped by 13.5 per cent due to the impact of COVID-19-related restrictions in 2020.

Meanwhile, housing finance activity has been subdued, with national activity rising by 0.6 per cent month-on-month.

Victoria recorded a 12.6 per cent month-on-month decline in mortgage market activity while in Western Australia, activity dropped by 6.1 per cent.

However, mortgage market activity surged by 17.2 per cent in South Australia, followed by Queensland (7.2 per cent), NSW (6.7 per cent), and Tasmania (4.2 per cent).

[Related: Surging house prices drive record household wealth]

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.