Auction volumes on their way back up
The auction market now appears to be set for rebound, after weeks of a downward trajectory following localised lockdowns.
Latest figures from CoreLogic revealed that auction volumes are set to rise to 1,638 capital city homes in the week ending 12 September – up from last week’s 1,423.
Of the capital cities, Sydney expects the highest number of scheduled auctions at 665, rising from 607 over the previous week.
This marks the second consecutive time that the New South Wales capital overtook Melbourne, which could be attributed to the stricter restrictions on the housing sector in Victoria, where private inspections are banned until around 23 September.
Melbourne is expecting 554 homes to be taken to the hammer, up from last week’s 430.
However, CoreLogic’s research analyst Caitlin Fono noted that “the actual number of homes taken to auction has been revising considerably lower over the lockdown period as vendors seek to reschedule”.
Across the smaller capital cities, Brisbane is set to be the busiest auction market yet again, with 194 auctions scheduled for the week.
Adelaide follows with 159, Canberra with 47, Perth with 17, and Tasmania with just two.
Last week’s results
In the week ending 5 September, combined capital cities saw 1,423 auctions, down from the 1,567 originally scheduled. Of these, 67.7 per cent returned a successful result – improving on last week’s 58 per cent when 1,960 auctions were held.
Looking closer into the capital cities, Sydney emerged as the most successful capital city market, recording a final clearance rate of 81.2 per cent out of 607 auctions.
Adelaide followed with 79.9 per cent out of 143 auctions, then Brisbane with 75.2 per cent out of 158 auctions, Canberra with 60.3 per cent out of 68 auctions, and Perth with 50 per cent out of 16 auctions.
Melbourne continued to be the least successful auction market, with a success rate of 43.8 per cent across 430 auctions held in the capital city. Still, this was an improvement from last week’s 35.9 per cent clearance rate – the lowest that it has been since late September 2020.
Ms Fono said the higher clearance rate in the Victorian capital was helped by the lower withdrawal rate at 52.9 per cent, down from 61.6 per cent over the previous week.
Of the capital cities, only Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne saw clearance rates increase week-on-week.
