The combined capital city preliminary clearance rate increased to 74.8 per cent this week, up from a revised final clearance rate of 69.4 per cent last week, while auction volumes increased week-on-week. There were 1,712 properties taken to auction this week, up from 1,627 last week, and higher than this time last year, when 1,329 auctions were held and a clearance rate of 67.9 per cent was recorded.
Based on the preliminary collection, all but one of the capital cities saw the clearance rate increase week-on-week. Melbourne’s auction market has continued to show some resilience to softer auction conditions, recording the highest preliminary clearance rate at 79.4 per cent, although this is likely to revise lower when the final auction results are released on the following Thursday. While Melbourne’s clearance rate has remained comfortably above 70 per cent since July last year, final auction results show Sydney’s auction clearance rate has been tracking below 70 per cent over the past six weeks, so it will be interesting to see if the preliminary clearance of 74.9 per cent is again revised below the 70 per cent mark.
