Persistent lockdowns rock auction results

Of the results collected so far, 72.3 per cent of auctions were successful, slightly down from last week’s final clearance rate of 74 per cent.

Melbourne was still the busiest auction market over the week despite a prolonged lockdown, with 954 homes taken to auction — a fair percentage higher than last week’s 662, but 16 per cent down on the initially predicted count.

But despite an impressive number of auctions, the Victorian capital recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of only 63 per cent, down from last week’s final results of 69.1 per cent — with over 31 per cent of auctions withdrawn.

“Melbourne’s final clearance rate hasn’t dipped below 60.0 per cent since October last year, so it will be interesting to see how this week holds up as final results are collected,” CoreLogic analyst Caitlin Fono said.

Meanwhile, Sydney recorded the second-highest auction volume of 562 homes, but in contrast to Melbourne, the NSW capital returned a success rate of 82.9 per cent, higher than last week’s final results of 77.6 per cent. Only 11.1 per cent of its auctions were withdrawn.

Looking across the smaller capitals, Canberra fell from its long-held first spot, recording a preliminary clearance rate of 81.9 per cent out of 84 auctions.

Adelaide pipped the nation’s capital with a success rate of 84.8 per cent out of 139 auctions.

Brisbane followed Canberra, with a 74.6 per cent clearance rate out of a total 163 auctions, while Perth remained solid with a 70 per cent success rate across 16 auctions.

Overall, only Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth surpassed their final clearance rates from the previous week.