December quarter auction clearance rate the best quarter over 2020 with nearly 70 per cent sold

The capital city clearance rate sat 69 per cent over the 2020 December quarter, making it the best performing quarter of 2020, followed by the March 2020 at 62 per cent.

Auction volumes increased by 44 per cent over the three months to December, with 20,489 homes taken to auction across the combined capital cities, up from 14,216 over the September quarter, according to CoreLogic’s Auction Market Review.

“While the three months to December was the busiest quarter of 2020, it was significantly lower than the December 2019 quarter, when 26,923 homes were taken to auction across the combined capitals.”

CoreLogic’s Head of Research Australia, Eliza Owen, says the bulk of the uplift could be attributed to Melbourne.

“65% of the uplift can be attributed to the resurgence of auctions scheduled across Melbourne,” she said noting that vendor activity became pent up during stage four restrictions across the city.

Owen expects auction results to continue “on a strong footing” into 2021, providing there’s no major resurgence of COVID-19 in the community.

Of the 20,411 auction results collected over the latest quarter, just 8.9 per cent reported a withdrawn result, compared to 18.7 per cent over the September quarter and 31.0 per cent over the June quarter. 

Of the sold results, 36.8 per cent were sold prior to auction, compared to 42.0 per cent over the September quarter and 47.8 per cent over the June quarter.

Evatt in the ACT secured a 100% success from its 22 captured results.

Sydney’s Bass Hill sat at 95.8% with 23 of its 24 scheduled auctions finding buyers in the quarter.

Melbourne’s Tullamarine was the top suburb with an 88.5% success rate with 23 of its 26 scheduled auctions yielding a sales results.

Brisbane’s top auction performer was Camp Hill at 75% with 24 of its 32 scheduled auctions being sold.