Capital city auction volumes surpass April high

This week’s volumes are not only higher than last week’s 1,728 auctions held, but the highest number of auctions held since the week ending 5 April.

However, preliminary figures indicate that the clearance rate weakened over the week after last week’s higher preliminary figure of 75.1 per cent, which later revised down to 70.6 per cent at final figures. One year ago, a much higher 2,612 homes were auctioned, when a lower 68.5 per cent cleared.

Looking closer into capital cities, Melbourne’s volumes increased over the week, with 632 properties scheduled to go under the hammer. Of the results collected so far, a preliminary clearance rate of 77.1 per cent was recorded, which was higher than both last week’s and last year’s clearance rate. However, volumes are only half of that seen last year.

In the previous week, 604 Melbourne homes were auctioned, recording a final auction clearance rate of 69.7 per cent. Last year, a 70.1 per cent clearance rate was achieved across 1,221 auctions.

In Sydney, there were 807 homes taken to auction over the week, with preliminary figures showing that 76.2 per cent were sold, lower than last week’s preliminary figure of 76.6 per cent when volumes were a higher 840.

Sydney’s final clearance rate came in at 71.3 per cent last week. One year ago, 940 Sydney homes were auctioned, returning a final clearance rate of 76 per cent.

Across the smaller cities, Canberra recorded the highest preliminary clearance rate at 82.4 per cent, followed by Brisbane (59.7 per cent). Perth and Adelaide saw lower preliminary clearance rates at 44.4 per cent and 41.2 per cent, respectively.

Home values

All major capital cities, including Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, saw an increase in home values over the week, with Adelaide seeing the highest increase at 0.5 per cent, followed by Perth with 0.4 per cent.

Over the month, Adelaide saw the highest increase at 0.9 per cent, followed by Perth at 0.6 per cent, Brisbane at 0.5 per cent, and Sydney and Melbourne at 0.1 per cent each.

Looking at the year-to-date change, Adelaide still saw the highest increase at 0.9 per cent, followed by Perth with 0.8 per cent, Melbourne with 0.6 per cent and Brisbane with 0.5 per cent. Sydney saw the lowest monthly price hike at 0.2 per cent.

As of the most recent four-week period, capital city private treaty median price is highest in Sydney and Melbourne for both houses and units, with median house price at $831,250 and $695,000 and median unit price at $646,750 and $564,000, respectively.

Darwin has replaced Perth as the most affordable capital city for houses and units, with median prices at $465,000 and $319,000, respectively.

Private treaty sales represent around 85 per cent of all dwelling sales across the country, according to CoreLogic.

Meanwhile, average time on market for houses was longest in Darwin at 57 days, followed by Brisbane (51), Perth (47), Adelaide (35), Sydney (35) and Canberra (34). Melbourne and Hobart had the shortest time on market at 30 days. For units, Darwin also recorded the highest number at 84 days, while Hobart was also the lowest at 26 days.

Vendor discounting for houses was highest in Adelaide and Perth at -2.5 per cent and lowest in Canberra at -1.6 per cent. For units, vendor discounting was highest in Brisbane at -2.8 per cent and lowest in Canberra at -1.4 per cent.