5,000-plus rise in homes up for auction last quarter

This figure however is lower than the December 2017 quarter, which saw 32,408 homes going to auction.

Across the major capital cities, Melbourne’s Reservoir saw the highest level of auctions for the capital city with 216. Sydney’s top performer was Mosman with 126, Brisbane’s was Camp Hill with 39, Adelaide’s was Prospect with 33, Canberra’s tied between Griffith and Narrabundah with 32 each and Perth’s was South Perth with 15.

The report also showed that the combined capital city clearance rate declined to 43.6 per cent over the quarter, down from 53.6 per cent over the quarter before, and also down from the same end quarter of 2017, which had a rate of 62.3 per cent.

The seven recorded capital cities all saw declines, with the exception of Tasmania, which held steady at 50 per cent.

The largest decline in clearance rates was in Canberra, which dropped 13.4 per cent to 46.9 per cent, followed by Adelaide which declined by 12.2 per cent to 48.5 per cent, Perth which declined by 11.9 per cent to 25 per cent and Melbourne, which declined by 11.2 per cent to 45.4 per cent.

However, there are still some suburbs that defied the capital city clearance rate. The stand-out suburb among the major capital cities for clearance rates was Sydney’s Bellevue Hill with a rate of 80 per cent. This was followed by Melbourne’s top performing suburb of Windsor Hill at 71.4 per cent, then Canberra’s Griffith at 58.3 per cent, Adelaide’s Prospect at 57.6 per cent and Brisbane’s Ashgrove at 33.3 per cent.

Regional areas

Outside of capital city markets, similar trends followed with auction volumes increasing but auction rates decreased over the December quarter.

The highest level of auction activity was seen in the Gold Coast with 616 auctions, followed by Geelong with 579.

The largest clearance rate decline was identified in the Hunter region, which fell by 18.8 per cent, followed by Geelong at 17.3 per cent, Wollongong at 10.2 per cent, the Gold Coast at 5.9 per cent and the Sunshine Coast at 3.1 per cent.