As auction volumes return to more normal levels after the festive period slowdown, auction clearance rates are holding higher than late 2017.
A preliminary auction clearance rate of 69.1 per cent was recorded across the combined capital cities as auction activity ramped up this week, with a total of 1,963 homes taken to auction, increasing from the 1,490 auctions held last week when (based on final results) 63.7 per cent cleared. While auction activity has increased over the last couple of weeks coming out of the slowdown, volumes are increasing at a slower pace than what was seen over the equivalent period last year (2,291).
Sydney’s preliminary clearance rate was recorded at 74.3 per cent across 718 scheduled auctions; well above the trend over the final quarter of 2017 where auction clearance rates were tracking in the low 50 per cent range. A preliminary auction clearance rate of 70.7 per cent was recorded across Melbourne, which is unchanged from last week’s final clearance rate, however volumes increased this week with 923 auctions held up from 619 last week.
This will be the first week in some time where Sydney has outperformed Melbourne, however as final results are collect it will be interesting to see how this revises.
The performance across the smaller auction markets was varied this week, with Adelaide recording a preliminary auction clearance rate of 67.3 per cent, while only 12.5 per cent of auctions were successful in Tasmania.
Looking at results by broad property types, Sydney houses were the best performing market this week, with 74.6 per cent of properties selling, followed closely by Melbourne’s unit market with 74.1 per cent of units selling, which was higher than Sydney’s units.
