Auction success slips below 70%
An extended period of higher auction volumes has caused clearance rates to drop once again.
According to CoreLogic’s Property Market Indicator Summary for the week ending 5 December 2021, more than 4,100 homes went under the hammer.
It was widely expected that the volume of scheduled auctions would see the week achieve the title of second-busiest week for auctions since records began back in 2008, which came to fruition.
Higher auction volumes and a balancing out of supply and demand issues did mean that the preliminary clearance rate once again dropped, to 69.9 per cent.
One week prior, for the week ending 28 November 2021, CoreLogic reported a preliminary clearance rate of 71.4 per cent that was then revised to a final clearance rate of 68.5 per cent, off the back of a record-breaking week for auction volumes, with 4,251 homes having gone under the hammer.
A testament to just how strong supply has been of late, this week’s auction volume was more than double that of the same period last year when just 2,085 homes were up for grabs.
Melbourne saw a slightly lower number of auctions as spring turned to summer than it had just one week earlier.
With 1,889 homes taken to auction, it scored the title of the third-busiest week for auctions this year, with numbers just less than the 1,910 reported one week earlier.
Melbourne’s results have been reflective of the combined auction results – recording a preliminary clearance rate of 69.4 per cent from the 1,558 results collected so far.
That success rate pushed higher on the previous week, when a preliminary clearance rate of 68.5 per cent had been recorded, which was then revised down to 66.3 per cent at final figures.
Sydney also had a stellar week for supply. Proving to be the second-busiest auction week for the NSW capital so far in 2021, Australia’s largest city saw 1,467 homes taken to auction.
While less than the 1,546 auctions that took place over the previous week, Sydney’s auction pipeline is a far cry from the 867 auctions reported over the same period in 2020.
Of the 1,249 results collected so far, 67.3 per cent of vendors found success. It marks the first time the city has seen the preliminary clearance rate slip below 70 per cent since early September 2020.
For the last full week of November, CoreLogic had reported Sydney’s preliminary clearance rate at 71.4 per cent, which was then revised down to 67.2 per cent, and marked the lowest final clearance rate the city had seen across the entirety of 2021.
CoreLogic has revealed it is likely that the final clearance rate will slip further this week.
Continuing its strong run, Canberra recorded the highest preliminary clearance rate among all capital cities at 82.1 per cent off the back of 179 auctions.
It was followed by Adelaide, which saw success in 76.4 per cent of the 298 auctions that took place.
A total of 273 auctions took place over the week in Brisbane, which resulted in a clearance rate of 74.6 per cent, while just over 40 per cent of Perth’s 25 auctions found success (43.5 per cent).
CoreLogic had previously noted five scheduled auctions set to take place in Tasmania. Of those, only one has found success so far, from the three results already reported.