Last week, the capital city auction market saw a remarkable surge in activity, with a massive 3,383 homes auctioned across the combined capitals. Such vibrant auction movement hasn’t been witnessed since Easter 2022. In comparison to the previous week, which recorded 2,463 auctions, there was a 37.4% increase. Moreover, last week’s figures were a staggering 76.1% higher than the 1,921 auctions observed during the same period last year.
This surge in auction volumes tested the depth of buyer demand and led to a slight dip in the combined capital’s preliminary clearance rate, which fell to 68.5% – the lowest preliminary rate observed since Easter (67.8%). So far, 2,573 results have been collected with 23.1% of properties being passed in at auction, while 8.4% were withdrawn by vendors. Though these numbers remain below the record-breaking activity of November and December 2021, last week marked the first time weekly auction numbers surpassed 3,000 since late May 2022 (3,226).
Melbourne experienced its busiest auction week since mid-April 2022, with 1,703 homes going under the hammer last week. This was a huge jump from the previous week’s 1,139 auctions and the 602 auctions held during the same time last year. With 1,358 results collected so far, Melbourne’s preliminary clearance rate has held steady at 68.6%, indicating that the rise in supply was met with a corresponding increase in demand. In comparison, the previous week’s clearance rate was revised to 63.3% at final figures, while during the same period last year, 60.9% of Melbourne auctions concluded successfully.
Sydney also saw an upswing in activity, hosting 1,086 auctions – a 22.3% increase from the previous week, which witnessed 888 home auctions. This reflects Sydney’s busiest auction week since late May 2022 (1,109), and marks just the third time this year that Sydney’s auction activity exceeded 1,000. However, with 830 results collected so far, Sydney’s preliminary clearance rate dipped by 3.4 percentage points to 70.8%. This decline can be attributed to a rise in both Sydney’s withdrawal rate (13.7%, up by 80 basis points) and the portion of properties passed in at auction (15.4%, up by 2.5 percentage points). During the same time last year, 61.0% of the 751 auctions in Sydney reported successful results.
Focusing on the smaller capitals, Brisbane (238) and Canberra (165) both witnessed their busiest auction weeks year-to-date. In Adelaide (173), the second-busiest week of auction activity happened during the same period, right behind the week ending 24th September (176). Adelaide saw its highest preliminary clearance rate in seven weeks, with 85.1% of the 101 results collected so far resulting in success. Brisbane’s preliminary clearance rate fell by 7.2 percentage points to 58.9%, while Canberra saw just over half (50.9%) of its auctions emerge successful. In Perth, six out of the 15 auctions produced successful results, whereas none of the three auctions held in Tasmania last week have reported positive outcomes yet.
While capital city auction numbers are forecasted to settle around the 2,100 mark this week, it’s worth noting that last week’s activity could indicate the peak in this spring’s selling season. Overall, the auction scene appears to be thriving with the bustling activity being tackled by the unwavering buyer demand.
