Auctions see quietest week since mid-June
In a rather subdued auction week, the combined capitals experienced a significant drop in activity, according to the latest data from CoreLogic.
With just 1,215 capital city homes going under the hammer, it was the quietest week since mid-June, when 1,033 properties were auctioned.
The decline can be attributed to long weekends observed across five out of the eight states and territories, resulting in a staggering 54.1% decrease compared to the previous week, when the capitals witnessed their busiest week since before Easter, with 2,648 auctions taking place.
This time last year, there were 1,618 homes up for auction, but the presence of public holidays for the AFL grand final and King's birthday in Queensland occurred the week prior, affecting the auction numbers, CoreLogic reported.
Out of the 963 results collected so far, an impressive 70.3% were successful. However, it's worth noting that the preliminary clearance rate of the previous week was initially reported at 72%, but later revised down to 66.1% in the final figures. In comparison, during the same period last year, 59.7% of reported auctions achieved success.
Sydney emerged as the busiest auction market, with 730 homes going under the hammer last week, CoreLogic reported. This represented a decline of 28.2% from the previous week's figure of 1,017. Interestingly, the city had its busiest auction week of the year to date the week before, tying with the week ending on April 2. However, Sydney experienced a slight drop in its preliminary clearance rate, which fell to its lowest point in eight weeks at 71.7%. Out of the 594 results collected so far, last week's preliminary clearance rate was 2.7 percentage points lower than the previous week's preliminary result of 74.4%, which eventually revised to 70% in the final numbers. Comparatively, during the same period last year, 484 homes were auctioned in Sydney, with a reported clearance rate of 56.2%.
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Melbourne, on the other hand, saw a significant decline in auction activity, with only 203 auctions held last week compared to 1,092 the previous week and 833 during the same period last year. The preliminary clearance rate also dipped below the 70% mark, marking the lowest point since mid-April at 57.6%, according to CoreLogic. Out of the 159 results collected so far, 66.0% returned a successful outcome. In contrast, the previous week's preliminary clearance rate stood at 70.5%, indicating a 4.5-percentage-point increase. This time last year, Melbourne recorded a final clearance rate of 62.1%.
Smaller capitals
Among the smaller capital cities, Brisbane emerged as the busiest auction market with 110 properties going under the hammer, followed by Adelaide with 83 and Canberra with 74, CoreLogic reported. Adelaide boasted the strongest preliminary clearance rate among the smaller capitals, with 79.3% resulting in a positive outcome, followed by Brisbane at 70.7% and Canberra at 62.5%.
Results for Perth and Tasmania are still being collected, with three out of six auctions in Perth returning a successful result.
Looking ahead, capital city auction activity is expected to bounce back this week, with approximately 2,600 homes currently scheduled for auction, according to CoreLogic.
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