Capital city clearance rate remains strong for the first week of Summer at 75 percent, while the number of auctions has fallen week-on-week
The combined capital city preliminary clearance rate rose this week to 75.0 percent, up from last week’s final clearance rate of 73.0 percent. This week’s auction market results indicate that clearance rates are maintaining strength coming into summer, a trend that is very different compared with last year’s performance when auctions clearance rates were tracking in the high 50 percent to low 60 percent range. The number of properties taken to auction this week fell across the capital cities, with 3,173 reported auctions, down from 3,398 last week, which was the second busiest week for auctions this year. In Melbourne and Sydney, the number of auctions held has decreased (1,410 and 1,158) while across the smaller capital cities, auction volumes have increased over the week. Auction activity is expected to slow over the remaining weeks of December, however the strong trend in clearance rates is showing no signs of easing.
Melbourne’s preliminary clearance rate this week rose to 79.3  percent (up from the final result last week of 76.1 percent) on a lower volume of properties up for auction. This week there were 1,410 properties offers through auction compared to 1,616 last week. Compared to this time last year, the clearance rate then was 63.3 percent across 1,622 auctions. The North East region of Melbourne was again the best performer where CoreLogic reports 166 auctions with 88.6 percent of these auctions being reported as successful so far followed by the North West region, where 83.0 percent of the 97 auctions were reported as sold so far.
Sydney’s preliminary clearance rate of 77.7 percent is up from last week’s final clearance rate of 77.1 percent (preliminary results were 81.9 percent). Volumes again like Melbourne were down from last week with 1,158 auctions held this week compared to 1,262 last week. The clearance rates (preliminary and final) are still up from this time last year of 52.9 percent on lower volumes of 1,070 auctions in the corresponding period. Looking at the sub-regions of Sydney, the Northern Beaches region recorded the strongest clearance rate of 88.9 per cent across 112 auctions, while the North Sydney and Hornsby region had the highest volume of auctions (168).
Brisbane’s preliminary clearance rate results are up when compared to the final result last week where 202 auctions were held. At the time of the report, 123 results have been reported with a preliminary clearance result of 50.4 percent against last week’s final result of 43.8 percent cleared of 191 auctions. Across the Gold Coast, CoreLogic reports there were 68 properties up for auction this week. Of the 26 results reported to them so far, 57.7 percent were successful.
Adelaide preliminary results are slightly improved from last week where 64.4 percent f the 165 auctions held were cleared compared to a final result last week of 63.1 percent on a lower volume of 140 properties going to auction during the week. 12 months ago, the clearance rate was 60 percent
Perth preliminary results are markedly increased from last week where 67.3 percent cleared compared to the 27.3 percent final result from last week. Volumes were also up from 67 auctions last week to 88 auctions this week. [Ed says: It will be interesting to see Perth’s final results next week however with 60% of the results counted this is a massive jump]
Preliminary clearance rates in each state courtesy of CoreLogic (as at 9am EDST 04/12/2016):
- Sydney – 77.7% clearance, 1,158 total auctions, 906 results reported, 704 cleared, 202 uncleared
- Melbourne – 79.3% clearance, 1,410 total auctions, 1,193 results reported, 946 cleared, 247 uncleared
- Brisbane – 50.4% clearance, 202 total auctions, 123 results reported, 62 cleared, 61 uncleared
- Adelaide – 64.4% clearance, 165 total auctions, 104 results reported, 67 cleared, 37 uncleared
- Perth – 67.3% clearance, 88 total auctions, 52 results reported, 35 cleared, 17 uncleared
- Tasmania – 62.5% clearance, 14 total auctions, 8 results reported, 5 cleared, 3 uncleared
- Canberra – 63.8% clearance, 136 total auctions, 94 results reported, 60 cleared, 34 uncleared.
