National average auction clearance rates have trended below 50% again, in a week which saw one capital city only clear 20% of its auctions.
The low numbers are despite a seasonal rise in the number of properties going to auction.
CoreLogic has released its preliminary figures, as it does each week, ahead of the final reporting of numbers.
There were 2,384 auctions held across all capital cities in the last week, returning a preliminary auction clearance rate of 46.8%.
This rate is lower than the previous week’s preliminary rate, which saw the lowest final rate since June 2012. Analysts at CoreLogic believes this may mean that last week’s final clearance rate comes through even lower.
With the clearance rates tracking below 50% for the last seven weeks, this is much lower than this time last year when clearance rates were tracking around the low to mid 60s range.
Sydney and Melbourne have accounted for 83% of all auctions held so far this year and these two cities can be attributed to the slowing figures.
They saw very similar clearance rates for last week, trending above the national average. In Sydney, 48.4% of homes sold at auction, after last week saw Sydney’s final auction clearance rate fall to its lowest since December 2008.
Volumes were relatively steady across Sydney week-on-week with 830 auctions held, up on the 813 held last week.
Melbourne saw a preliminary clearance rate of 48.3%, an increase on the week prior which saw a 45.7% final result from 266 auctions. The low auction figures were attributed to the Melbourne Cup.
Adelaide recorded the highest preliminary auction clearance rate of 47.5%, while in Perth only 20% of auctions cleared.
