Spring selling season heats up as auction activity continues to rise

Since the start of 2018, there have only been two other weeks when auction volumes have climbed above the 3,500 mark, CoreLogic noted.

The two other instances occurred during weeks leading up to separate Easter holidays, with the first occurring during the week ending 25 March 2018 (3,990 auctions) and the week ending 28 March 2021 (3,840 auctions). 

Melbourne is gearing up for its second-busiest auction week this year. The Victorian capital recorded the highest volume at 1,783 homes, up 21.5 per cent from the previous week’s 1,467 auctions. The number of houses going under the hammer is also substantially higher than the previous year’s 606 auctions. 

Sydney is also set to see the second busiest auction week of 2021. The NSW capital has 1,202 properties scheduled to find new owners, up from 974 over the previous weekend. This, too, was higher than the figures recorded last year at 854 auctions.

It’s not just the bigger cities seeing a strong uptick in auction market activity. Smaller cities are also staring down the barrel of their busiest auction weeks as auction volumes in cities hit multi-year (and even record) highs. 

Brisbane has 248 auctions scheduled this week, with is the city’s highest weekly auction volumes since the week ending 20 November 2016. 

Adelaide’s auction market will be making history, as its scheduled 235 auctions will be its busiest auction week since CoreLogic started its records in 2008. Meanwhile, Canberra’s auction market has 141 scheduled auctions this week; its busiest week for auctions since late November 2018.

Perth is the outlier among the capital city pack, seeing a decline in volumes this week, with only 18 homes set to go under the hammer, down from 23 over the previous week.

Meanwhile, Tasmanian homebuyers will only have two auctions on their radar this week.  

Last week’s results

The final auction clearance rate for the previous week landed at 78.9 per cent for the combined capitals, out of just over 3,000 results reported for the period.  

Last week was the second busiest auction week for the year, with 3,019 homes taken to auction across the combined capital cities. The volume is up from both the previous week’s 2,940 and this time last year with 1,427. Clearance rates are also up from 78.3 per cent over the previous week and 66.9 per cent over the same week last year. 

Melbourne’s clearance rate continued to be below the 80 per cent mark but showed a slight improvement from the previous week.

The Victorian city recorded a clearance rate of 77.8 per cent out of the 1,460 reported auctions resulting in a sale. The figures are up from 74.9 per cent over the previous week and 63.5 percent this time last year. 

In Sydney, volumes slightly improved from 916 auctions in the previous week and 700 this time last year to 974 homes. The NSW capital’s clearance rate fell below 80 per cent for the first time since late August, with a 78.5 per cent out of 966 auctions resulting in a sale. The clearance rate is down from 81.5 per cent last week but higher than the 70.4 per cent reported during the same period last year. 

Across the smaller capital cities, Canberra recorded the highest auction clearance rate of 88.7 per cent. This was followed by Adelaide (86.6 per cent), Brisbane (77.7 per cent), and Perth (56.5 per cent). 

Meanwhile, the two auctions held in Tasmania resulted in a sale. 

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