Capital city clearance rates plummet

The latest data by CoreLogic has revealed that auction activity was significantly lower across the combined capitals this week with 1,393 homes, compared with previous week that saw 2,644 homes taken to auction and returned a clearance rate around 58.2 per cent.

As the majority of states celebrated the Queen’s birthday, the lower results likely reflected the seasonal factors, which was similar to last year’s results of 1,413 auctions.

However, most other capital cities saw higher auctions this year compared to last, except Sydney that reported 552 auctions were held, compared with 745 last year.

Of the 465 results collected so far 58.1 per cent were successful. In addition, Sydney’s preliminary clearance was 59 per cent last week, which revised down to 53.3 per cent at final figures – marking the lowest final clearance rate Sydney has seen since April 2020.

The report noted clearance rates were the lowest over the year to date for most of the capital cities, including Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra, reflecting more challenging selling conditions for vendors.

“We will see these conditions tested further next week as auction volumes rebound to around 2,600 across the combined capitals,” CoreLogic reported.

The final clearance rate has remained below 60 per cent for the last two weeks compared to clearance rates above 70 per cent this time last year.

In Melbourne 446 homes were taken to auction this week, down from 1,245 over the previous week, although up from this time last year when 355 auctions were held across the city.

Of the 366 results collected so far, 57.4 per cent have been successful, down from the previous week’s preliminary clearance rate of 61.2 per cent.

Across the smaller capitals, Adelaide recorded the highest preliminary auction clearance rate (78.7 per cent) for 145 homes, followed by Canberra that listed 68 homes and saw 59.2 per cent success, and Brisbane recorded a clearance rate of 48 per cent for 161 auctions.

There were no auctions held in Tasmania this week.

[Related: Clearance rates fall after short rebound: CoreLogic]