Corelogic says auction activity reaches its highest level not only over the year-to-date, but the highest volume of auctions ever recorded across the combined capital cities and Melbourne individually.
But the preliminary clearance rate is reported at 65.5% this week and will fall further, compared to 67.5% last week – which was subsequently revised down to 66.0%. Last year at the same time the result was 74.5%.
Something else to watch is the discounts to asking price, which we suspect is also rising, more data on this soon.
The pre- Easter week sees the number of homes taken to auction reach their highest level ever recorded, with a total of 3,967 auctions held across the combined capital cities exceeding the previous highest week on record over the week ending 30th November 2014 when 3,908 auctions were held.
The uplift in activity is what has historically been seen in the lead up to the Easter period slowdown, although compared to the pre-Easter week last year auction volumes were significantly lower than this week (3,517).
The weighted average preliminary clearance rate did shift slightly lower this week amid the higher activity, returning a 65.5 per cent success rate.
Across Melbourne, a total of 2,078 homes were taken to market across the city also making it a record busiest week in CoreLogic history; surpassing the previous record over the week ending 29th October 2017 when 1,983 auctions were held. The preliminary auction clearance rate fell however across the higher volumes, with 67 per cent of homes selling, down from the previous weeks 68.7 per cent.
A preliminary auction clearance rate of 66.2 per cent was recorded across Sydney this week, while volumes across the city reached a year-to-date high, with a total of 1,359 auctions held which was lower than what was seen over the pre-Easter week last year (1,436). Despite the increase in activity the preliminary clearance rate was second highest for the city this year.
Results across the smaller auction markets saw volumes increase across all remaining cities, however auction clearance rates returned varied results week-on-week.
