Melbourne weekend clearance rate up from last year: REIV

Melbourne’s weekend auction clearance rate was 13 percentage points higher than the same time last year, according to the Real Estate Institute of Victoria.

It recorded a clearance rate of 73% at its weekend auctions compared to 60% the same time last year.

It was also up from last weekend which had a clearance rate of 70%.

The REIV says after a small dip in the clearance rate over the school holidays the market has returned to this year’s underlying trend.

It says the recent interest rate cut should help to further boost buyer sentiment over winter.

Of the 617 auctions recorded by the REIV, 453 sold and 164 passed in – 96 of those on vendor bids.

The cheapest house sale recorded was a three-bedroom, 1-bathroom house on Tristania Street in Doveton, near Dandenong, which sold for $270,000.

In 2011 it was on the market for $290,000 but did not sell, according to RP Data.

According to the REIV, $333 million of property changed hands via auction and $300 million in private sales.

There was a median sale price of $744,500 for houses and $508,750 for units.

REIV’s statistics closely match RP Data’s which found there was a weekly auction clearance rate of 72.7% in Melbourne in the week to May 19. It recorded 596 auction results through the week of which 433 sold.