Low auction numbers boosting clearance rates
Continuing low volumes of property on the market in Australia’s capital cities are seeing auction clearance rates hold steady over 65 per cent, boosting hopes that the property downturn has bottomed out, according to new figures from CoreLogic.
The research group’s National Auction Market Preview for the week ending 11 August showed that 1,044 properties were going to auction around Australia, a slight decline on the previous week when 1,108 homes were auctioned and significantly lower than the 1,402 auctions in the same week in 2018.
In signs that property supply was continuing to decline in the main capital city markets of Melbourne and Sydney, auction numbers were down 5.8 per cent in Melbourne compared to the previous week, and 9 per cent in Sydney.
Melbourne remains a busier market for auctions with 471 scheduled for the week ending 11 August, with the busiest suburbs being Glen Waverley, Bentleigh and Glen Iris in the south of the city and Footscray in the north.
Meanwhile, auction clearance rates remained above 65 per cent across the capital cities, reaching 66.4 per cent in the week ending 4 August, down slightly from 68.6 per cent the previous week. Both Melbourne and Sydney markets recorded clearance rates of above 70 per cent, the fifth week in a row for Sydney that rates remained at this level.