Auctions slightly up year-on-year

The figures showed that the combined capital city preliminary auction clearance rate was recorded at 65.9 per cent across 882 auction results so far this week. Again, this is slightly higher than last week’s preliminary result of 65.3 per cent, which later revised down to 58.7 per cent.

The corresponding period last year saw a final clearance rate of 67.8 per cent across the combined capital cities.

Capital city breakdown

Still in the midst of stage 4 restrictions, Melbourne saw 298 homes on track for auction this week. This is down from 357 the week prior and 500 this time last year.

“The number of auctions held across Melbourne has reduced sharply through the lockdown period, but withdrawal rates have been much lower relative to the previous lockdown period in April and early May earlier this year,” CoreLogic said.

“The preliminary collection indicates only 18 per cent of Melbourne auctions were withdrawn from the market this week, compared with a peak of 65 per cent through the second week of April.  

“Of the 244 auction results collected so far, 73.0 per cent were successful, although this will likely revise lower as the remaining auction results are collected. Last week saw a final clearance rate of 55.1 per cent recorded across the city, while this time last year, 72.3 per cent of Melbourne auctions were successful.”

Meanwhile, Sydney saw 642 homes go under the hammer for the week concluding 16 August. This is up from 566 over the previous week and 367 this time last year.

“Of the 483 auction results collected so far, 65.8 per cent have returned a successful result. Last week, a final clearance rate of 60.7 per cent was recorded, while one year ago, a success rate of 76.2 per cent was achieved across Sydney,” CoreLogic said.

Canberra saw the best result for the week ending 16 August. The ACT capital saw the highest preliminary clearance rate over the week at 73.2 per cent. This was followed by Adelaide at 71.4 per cent.

On the opposite end, Perth and Brisbane saw the worst results with preliminary clearance rates of 22.2 per cent and 46.8 per cent, respectively.