More than 3,000 homes went under the hammer thanks to a highly anticipated "Super Saturday" event
Last week witnessed a surge in auction activity across the capital cities, thanks to a highly anticipated “Super Saturday” event, CoreLogic reported.
A total of 3,383 homes were put up for auction, marking the busiest auction week since Easter 2022. This figure represents a significant increase of 37.4% compared to the 2,463 auctions held the previous week and a substantial 76.1% rise from the 1,921 auctions held during the same period last year. While not reaching the record-breaking numbers observed in November and December of 2021, last week's auction volumes surpassed 3,000 for the first time since late May 2022 (3,226).
The additional influx of properties tested the depth of buyer demand, leading to a preliminary clearance rate of 68.5% across the combined capitals, CoreLogic reported. This represents the lowest preliminary rate since Easter (67.8%). Out of the 2,573 results collected thus far, 23.1% of properties were passed in at auction, while 8.4% were withdrawn by vendors. Comparatively, the previous week's preliminary clearance rate was 2.3 percentage points higher at 70.8% (revising to 65.7% at final figures). In the same week last year, a final clearance rate of 58.8% was reported.
In Melbourne, a total of 1,703 homes went under the hammer last week, making it the busiest auction week since mid-April 2022 (1,795). The previous week saw 1,139 homes auctioned, while during the same period last year, only 602 auctions took place, CoreLogic reported.
The increased supply was met with a strong rise in demand, as Melbourne's preliminary clearance rate held steady at 68.6% with 1,358 results collected so far. The previous week's clearance rate revised to 63.3% at final figures, and this time last year, 60.9% of Melbourne auctions found success.
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Meanwhile, Sydney hosted 1,086 auctions, marking a 22.3% increase from the previous week's 888 auctions. Last week was Sydney's busiest since late May 2022 (1,109), and only the third time this year that auction activity exceeded the 1,000 mark, according to CoreLogic.
As of now, 830 results have been collected, and Sydney's preliminary clearance rate experienced a decline of -3.4 percentage points, with 70.8% of auctions reporting a successful outcome. This decrease can be attributed to the rise in both the withdrawal rate (13.7%), up 80 basis points, and the portion of properties passed in at auction (15.4%), up 2.5 percentage points. In comparison, this time last year, 61.0% of the 751 auctions held across Sydney achieved success.
Smaller capitals
Across the smaller capitals, Brisbane (238) and Canberra (165) witnessed their busiest auction weeks of the year so far, CoreLogic reported. Adelaide (173) also experienced its second busiest week of auction activity in the year-to-date, second only to the week ending Sept. 24 (176). Adelaide reported its highest preliminary clearance rate in seven weeks, with 85.1% of the 101 results collected so far returning a successful result.
In Brisbane, the preliminary clearance rate fell by -7.2 percentage points to 58.9%, while just over half (50.9%) of the auctions held in Canberra were successful, CoreLogic reported. In Perth, six out of the 15 auctions held last week yielded positive results, while none of the three auctions held in Tasmania have recorded positive outcomes thus far.
Market experts anticipate that capital city auction numbers will return to around the 2,100 mark this week, potentially indicating that last week marked the peak of this spring selling season.
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