Last week marked the busiest auction week since October for combined capital cities, with a total of 2,905 properties going under the hammer, fresh CoreLogic data showed.
This significant spike in auction volume, the most since the final week of October which saw 3,135 auctions, comes as the market anticipates the Reserve Bank’s next monetary policy decision and ahead of looming federal elections
Despite the high volume of auctions, buyer demand appears to lag, as evidenced by the preliminary auction clearance rate dipping to 66.1%—the lowest early rate since just before the rate cut in February, which had a clearance rate of 65%, according to CoreLogic’s Caitlin Fono (pictured).
Melbourne emerged as the busiest auction market, with 1,382 homes auctioned—marking the second-highest auction volume for the city this year. However, Melbourne’s preliminary auction clearance rate fell to 67.2%, a drop of 3.4 percentage points from the prior week’s rate of 70.6%.
In Brisbane, 173 homes were auctioned, making it the third busiest week for the city this year. The preliminary success rate was 59.5%, down from the previous week but still one of the highest for the year.
Adelaide had its busiest week in four weeks with 139 auctions, where the clearance rate significantly recovered to 75.6% from just 60.8% the week before.
The ACT held 72 auctions, experiencing the lowest preliminary clearance rate for the year at 50.9%.
Perth and Tasmania saw smaller auction volumes, with Perth hosting 14 auctions and Tasmania three. Perth had a preliminary success rate of 28.6%, while in Tasmania, two out of three homes sold.
The volume of auctions is expected to decrease to about 2,350 homes this week, with projections indicating a rise to approximately 2,800 the following week, Fono said.
