Low sentiment, tough selling conditions and regulations preventing open homes and on-site auctions continue to push the number of scheduled auctions down this week – but an uplift could be coming sooner than expected.
CoreLogic reports 424 capital city homes are scheduled for auction, down on the 612 homes auctioned last week.
But with news the NSW and WA state governments are lifting the ban on on-site auctions and inspections, with other states likely to follow suit, CoreLogic Research Analyst Jade Harling said auction volumes could potentially be poised to rise.
“A lift in auctions isn’t likely to happen straight away, with vendors and agents generally relying on at least a four-week marketing campaign leading up to the auction event,” she said.
There are 152 Melbourne homes scheduled for auction this week, down on the 217 held last week.
Sydney is expected to be the busiest auction market for the third week in a row, with 191 scheduled auctions this week – down on the 283 held last week.
Canberra is the only capital city auction market expected to see an increase in volumes over the week, with 40 homes currently scheduled for auction.
Summary of last week’s results
According to CoreLogic, there were 612 capital city homes taken to auction last week, returning a final auction clearance rate of 47.5 per cent.
This was an improvement on the week prior when 41.1 per cent of the 413 auctions returned a successful result.
“Last week saw withdrawal rates much lower than what we’ve seen over the past month as the flow of auctions scheduled ‘pre- restrictions’ tapers,” Ms Harling said.
Of the 531 results collected, 26 per cent were withdrawn compared with the 50 per cent seen two weeks ago.
The number of ‘sold prior’ results remains higher than usual with 52 per cent of properties selling prior to the scheduled auction date.
Melbourne’s final auction clearance rate came in above 40 per cent for the first time in six weeks.
There were 217 auctions scheduled with 41.9 per cent selling. Of the 186 results, 33 per cent reported a withdrawn result, while of the 91 sold results 42.3 per cent sold prior to auction.
In Sydney, 53.9 per cent of auctions reportedly sold last week. There were 283 scheduled auctions with 245 results. Of the results collected, 24 per cent were withdrawn and of the sold results 59.8 per cent sold prior.
Across the smaller markets, Canberra remains the most resilient auction market through these challenging times, returning the strongest final clearance rate across the capitals of 57.7 per cent and also one of the lowest rates of withdrawn auctions (15 per cent).
