Melbourne auction boom fades
The auction market in Melbourne is losing momentum, even as activity in Sydney continues to climb.
Domain Group senior economist Dr Andrew Wilson said Melbourne’s weekend auction market recorded its lowest clearance rate since early July last weekend.
“The 72.7 per cent result was below the previous weekend's 75.6 per cent rate and just higher than the 71 per cent recorded over the same weekend a year ago,” he said.
Nonetheless, he believes the market is still buoyant across the city.
“Although this weekend’s weaker result broke a trend of rising clearance rates over the past month, the rate was nonetheless another relatively solid result for a market that has proven particularly resilient not only over winter but also for most of the year.”
Dr Wilson said a moderation in clearance rates may reflect higher listing numbers at the weekend with 624 homes auctions scheduled compared to the 528 auctioned the previous weekend.
Melbourne’s inner east again recorded the best result of all the suburban regions at the weekend with another strong clearance rate of 83.3 percent.
This was closely followed by the outer east with 82.4 percent and the north with 81.3 percent. Next best was the north east with 77.8 percent and the inner south with 69.7 percent.
On the other hand, Dr Wilson said Sydney recorded a record clearance rate at the weekend of 80.4 per cent.
“This is higher than the 79.1 per cent recorded last weekend and the highest rate reported since early April,” he said.
“The Sydney weekend auction market has clearly been in revival mode over the past five weekends with average clearance rate over that period rising to 78.3 per cent compared to just 74.1 per cent over the previous five-weekend period.”