Originally published by CoreLogic
Auction clearance rates cooled over the first week of winter, remaining below 60 per cent for the fourth consecutive week.
The first week of winter sees auction volumes remain steady across the combined capital cities, with 2,272 homes taken to market returning a preliminary clearance rate of 57.6 per cent. While the preliminary clearance rate shows a week-on-week improvement, it’s likely that as final results are collected the weighted average will fall to remain at a similar, if not lower level than recorded last week. Over the past month weekly results have seen the combined capital city clearance rate progressively weaken, with last week returning the lowest clearance rates since early 2013 with only 56.2 per cent of homes successful at auction. Auction volumes however have remained at relatively consistent levels over each week with 2,297 held last week.
Capital City Auction Statistics (preliminary)
Compared to results over the same week last year, the auction market was performing quite differently, with a much higher 69.8 per cent of homes selling last year (2,578 auctions), however it did mark the first week where clearance rates commenced their downward trend as market conditions declined over the last 12 months.
Results by property type show the unit market outperformed houses for another week, while this trend is typical historically with a significantly lower proportion of units going to auction compared to houses; it’s more evident in recent months with the success rate of the unit market maintaining strength relative to the falls across the house segment.
Auction Results by Property Type
Melbourne returned a preliminary clearance rate of 61.6 per cent this week, increasing on last week’s 59 per cent final clearance. While the city was quite resilient to falls for most of 2017, this year has shown the market weakening with clearance rates across Melbourne the lowest since 2014.
Weekly Clearance Rate, Combined Capital Cities
In Sydney, the preliminary clearance rate fell to 52.3 per cent this week, down on last week’s final clearance rate of 56.1 per cent. As results are collected it will be interesting to see if the final clearance rate will remain above 50 per cent. There were 830 homes taken to auction with almost only half selling. The last time Sydney’s clearance rate fell below 50 per cent was briefly over the last week of January in 2016; prior to that was between late 2010 and 2012 as the market moved through a downturn.
The performance across the smaller auction markets was varied as usual last week, with Adelaide returning the strongest preliminary clearance rate of 68.2 per cent, while only 26.7 per cent of homes sold across Perth.
Sub-Region Auction Results
