COVID fails to stop auction market success

Amid an ongoing lockdown, Sydney’s auction volumes fell 17 per cent from the initial predicted count to just 661 properties. Of the results collected so far, 76.5 per cent were sold – and 70.7 per cent of those were sold prior to the auction date. A further 19 per cent were withdrawn.

The week prior, Sydney saw 70.5 per cent of 756 auctions return a successful result.

CoreLogic research analyst Jade Harling said sellers across the capital city remain largely resilient as they learn to “pivot their selling strategies amidst the extended lockdown”.

Ray White NSW chief auctioneer Alex Pattaro has agreed, and encouraged vendors to take advantage of the current market.

“If you think the COVID restrictions are getting in the way, think again.

“With the low stock volume … our suggestion is to come to market now. Those who come to market sooner rather than later will be rewarded, as opposed to waiting until lockdowns lift where there will be more competition on the market,” Mr Pattaro said.

Looking into other capital cities, Canberra once again returned the highest clearance rate at 90 per cent out of 84 auctions, followed by Adelaide with 84.9 per cent out of 112 auctions.

Brisbane, meanwhile, saw a clearance rate of 75.8 per cent out of 162 auctions, beating out Melbourne with 75.3 per cent out of 1,077 auctions.

Perth saw the lowest clearance rate at 36.4 per cent out of 20 auctions.

Of the capital cities, only Sydney and Adelaide surpassed last week’s volumes.

However, all capital cities saw higher results compared with their final clearance rates last week.