Combined capital city auction clearance rates rise: Cameron Kusher
Last week, 3,226 properties were taken to auction which was the highest number of auctions this spring and up from 2,947 auctions the previous week.
Although auction volumes rose, so too did the preliminary auction clearance rate which was recorded at 63.8%, up from 61.4% over the previous week.
The higher auction clearance rate was largely due to a large volume of auctions in Melbourne over the week and a slightly higher auction clearance rate as well as a moderate lift in clearance rates in Sydney. At the same time last year, there were a higher number of auctions over the week (3,360) as well as a higher auction clearance rate (68.5%).
Melbourne auction volumes rose sharply over the week with 1,548 properties auctioned last week up from 1,204 over the previous week. So far, we have captured results for 1,362 of these auctions. The preliminary auction clearance rate was slightly higher last week (69.5%) compared to the previous week (69.0%) however, it was the fourth successive week that the Melbourne market recorded clearance rates below 70%. Over the same week in 2014, Melbourne had a lower auction clearance rate of 68.9% across a lower 1,504 auctions. Across the individual regions of the city; Inner (70.1%), Inner South (70.7%), Outer East (70.9%) and West (75.2%) were the only regions to record clearance rates above 70%. The Mornington Peninsula with a clearance rate of 64.8% had the lowest clearance rate across the city.
The preliminary auction clearance rate for Sydney was recorded at 61.0% last week across 1,200 auctions, of which we currently have results for 880 auctions. The preliminary clearance rate has rebounded from a final clearance rate of 58.4% the previous week from a slightly higher 1,248 auctions. Sydney auction clearance rates are now below 70% for seven consecutive weeks. Over the same week a year ago, Sydney had a much higher auction clearance rate of 73.1% across a higher 1,417 auctions. The only regions of the city to record a clearance rate above 70% were: City and Inner South (73.3%), Eastern Suburbs (76.6%) and North Sydney and Hornsby (71.1%). At the same time, Central Coast (34.8%) and South West (34.2%) each had clearance rates below 40% over the week.
There were 198 Brisbane properties taken to auction last week, of which we have results for 122 auctions. The preliminary data indicates that 45.9% of these auctions were successful. Over the previous week, both the number of auctions (168) and the clearance rate (37.7%) was lower. At the same time last year there were fewer properties taken to auction (142) however, the clearance rate was at a similar level (45.8%). Gold Coast had a preliminary auction clearance rate of 48.0% with results capturing for 50 of the 80 total auctions.
Adelaide recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 49.4% last week which was lower than the 58.1% clearance rate over the previous week. The clearance rate was calculated from 81 results across 119 total auctions which is lower than the 146 total auctions for the previous week. At the same time last year there were 152 auctions with a clearance rate of 55.4%.
In Perth there were 38 auctions last week with 18 results so far. The preliminary clearance rate was recorded at 50.0%, up from 16.2% the previous week. The preliminary clearance rate is slightly higher than the 45.5% at the same time last year across 57 auctions.
Canberra’s preliminary auction clearance rate last week was 66.1% which was down from 76.6% over the previous week. The city had 100 auctions this week with 62 results so far which is a lower number of total auctions compared to the 122 the previous week.
Of the 10 Tasmanian auction results reported so far this week, 6 sales have been recorded.
Cameron Kusher is research analyst for CoreLogic RP Data. You can contact him here.