While the combined clearance rate across the country saw a slight dip this week, Australia’s two major markets of Sydney and Melbourne have remained above the 70 per cent mark.
In Melbourne, there were 500 homes up for auction with a 73.3 per cent success rate. That was up from the prior weeks of 71.7 per cent.
Meanwhile in Sydney, volumes remained steady with 381 auctions with 74.8 per cent selling, down slightly on last week’s 75.7 per cent final clearance numbers.
Justin Nickerson (QLD)
In Queensland, Justin Nickerson has seen another strong weekend where he personally oversaw auctions where 100 per cent of listed properties were sold.
Justin believes that while there has been a strong buyer turnout, there should be some more volume coming into the market in the coming weeks.
“We’ve got a lot more volume coming in the next few weeks for the start of spring so we are expecting to see that impact the clearance rate.
“Traditionally that has hurt the clearance rate, but given the type of year we’ve had to date we are hoping that might change this time around.”
Gavin Croft (Sydney)
Sydney’s Gavin Croft believes while there are strong auction clearance rates, the sellers remain firmly in control at the moment.
“At the moment we are still waiting for the tipping point where we’re going to get that equilibrium between buyer and seller, because at the moment it’s certainly back in the seller’s favour.
“We’re in a holding period now until we reach that point, but for the time being there certainly doesn’t seem to be the emergence of a flurry of stock about to hit the market.
“Personally we had a 100 per cent clearance this week with an average of eight registered bidders per auction. This year to date, BresicWhitney has conducted 317 auctions, 249 have sold on or before auction day, giving a year-to-date auction clearance of 78.5 per cent”
David Holmes (Canberra/QLD)
Down south in Canberra and up north in Queensland, David Holmes is finding that the best properties are still able to command premium prices, but for the rest, there is a clear disconnect between sellers and the market.
“The requirement for quality is still there, so houses have to be immaculately presented to get those premium prices, and agents are having to have some pretty stiff conversations with vendors.
“It’s imperative that agents have a clear discussion with vendors very early on about price expectations. I think in about 70 per cent of our auctions, our vendors were still considerably over the market compared to the reserve price.
“The ones we did get away this week, were hard-fought and we had to have some pretty tough conversations on the day. We had around a 40 per cent clearance rate however, and bookings for August and into September have increased considerably.”
Alec Brown (ACT)
Across the ACT, Alec Brown said the winter trend remained in place with soft volumes and lower clearance rates.
“There were 25 auctions reported for the weekend with a 48 per cent clearance rate. We had the three auctions over the weekend with two selling and one passing in.
“When the volumes are so low I would be cautious about looking at the overall clearance rate. The numbers aren’t deep enough to get a really good feel for the sentiment out there in the market place right now.
“There is still very strong interest across the open homes. We launched 30 properties this week and traffic across those homes was significant with one open home having 58 groups.
“Clearly, there is an appetite to buy with the low stock levels at the moment and in six-eight weeks’ time I expect things will be very busy.”
AJ Coleman (South Australia)
AJ Coleman in South Australia had five auctions over the weekend and saw a range of different bidders.
There was one auction that sold at Kangaroo Island which was a novelty for the area. Meanwhile, in some other auctions in and around Adelaide, it was a case of the vendors not being able to meet the expectation of the market.
“Our best auction was at Leabrook where there were 25 registered bidders with a reserve of $962,500 and we sold it for $1,215,000,” AJ said.
Luke Banitsiotis (VIC)
Victoria’s Luke Banitsiotis says there is strong buyer demand, which is really helping keep a strong bid under prices in Victoria.
“We had another good weekend. The lower stock levels are really pushing buyer activity. We just don’t have enough quality family homes. When they hit the market we are seeing very strong inspection numbers, which are then leading to super competitive auctions.
“We had a one-bedroom unit go to auction, really good turnout, two buyers with some strong competition, numerous other buyers weren’t able to get their hand up as it just ran away from them. The first home buyer market is very strong at the moment.”
Stu Benson (NSW)
Across Sydney, Stu Benson saw lower auction numbers which coincided with the properties that launched around four weeks ago.
“This is the annual ‘norm’, so no surprises,” he reflected.
“On the auction front, what is encouraging is the strong ratio of registered bidders to the number of bidders who are actually participating.
“What I mean by this is that, in a ‘buyers’ market which is spoiled for choice thanks to a high volume of houses for sale, buyers often register at many auctions over many weeks or even months.
“Having one eye on another property (or three) may mean that they don’t give it all they’ve got, if at all.
“Given the lack of choice currently in the market, sellers are being rewarded by renewed competition for their properties. Bidders are bidding, and another weekend above 70 per cent in Sydney means sellers are selling well via auction.”
