Auction volumes across Australia’s capital cities remain relatively low this week, despite a minor increase in scheduled activity.
According to the latest data from Cotality, 1,603 homes are set to go under the hammer across the combined capitals in the week ending 10 August – up slightly from 1,575 last week but still well below the 1,891 auctions recorded during the same week last year.
Melbourne and Sydney Lead the Way
Melbourne remains the nation’s busiest auction market, with 738 homes scheduled – marginally up from 730 last week.
However, that’s still a significant drop from the 897 auctions held at the same time last year.
Sydney follows with 587 auctions this week, a modest rise from 571 the week prior. In comparison, 645 Sydney homes went to auction in the equivalent week last year.
Smaller Capitals Hold Steady
In the smaller capital cities:
- Brisbane will host 123 auctions (down from 128 last week)
- Adelaide is seeing a small jump to 91 auctions (up from 84)
- Canberra holds steady with 55 auctions
- Perth edges up slightly with nine scheduled auctions (compared to eight last week)
- Tasmania remains quiet, recording zero auctions for the third consecutive week
Auction volumes are expected to rise next week, with 1,920 auctions currently on the radar. If all proceed, it would mark the busiest auction week since late June (2,044 auctions).
Clearance Rates Slide
Last week’s auction clearance rate across the combined capitals dropped to 67.1%, down from 68.5% the previous week, marking a six-week low.
For comparison, the same week last year recorded a clearance rate of 64.0%.
Melbourne saw 730 auctions with a clearance rate of 65.3%, down from 69.9%. This figure ties with the week ending 13 July as the lowest clearance rate since April (60.5%).
Sydney, however, bounced back over the 70% mark for the first time in three weeks, reporting a 70.2% clearance rate from 571 auctions.
The previous week came in at 66.6%, while the same time last year saw a 64.8% success rate.
Among the smaller capitals:
- Canberra led the pack with a 67.3% clearance rate
- Brisbane reported 66.4%, a drop from 72.2%
- Adelaide improved slightly to 63.1%, up from 62.5%
- Perth had just seven auctions, four of which were successful
- Tasmania recorded no auction activity
