Boom-time auction results revealed: Melbourne defies lockdown, Sydney breaks records

According to the latest CoreLogic Property Market Indicator Summary, 668 homes hit the hammer in Melbourne last week, with 47.6 per cent of the city’s successful auctions sold prior, while so far, just 8 per cent have been reported as withdrawn.

Overall, CoreLogic recorded 1,529 homes scheduled for auction across the combined capital cities in the week ending 14 February 2021, up from 1,304 over the previous week.

Of the 1,191 results collected so far, 86.1 per cent reported a successful result – above last week’s preliminary auction clearance rate of 83.8 per cent, which was later revised down to 79.3 per cent.

Despite Melbourne’s lockdown shadow, new data from Archistar has revealed a remarkable 89.1 per cent clearance rate across Sydney on Saturday – the highest since May 2015 and the second-highest Saturday result on record. 

CoreLogic put Sydney at an overall preliminary rate of 87.5 per cent. 

But CoreLogic’s latest overall rate is expected to be adjusted further once remaining auctions are collected in Melbourne, with the data company predicting more withdrawal results in this city.

What’s next?

According to Archistar chief economist Dr Andrew Wilson, Melbourne’s impressive figures were a direct result of the action seen across its Inner South and South East, where clearance rates reached 82.7 per cent.

Across the city, the median house auction price stood at $992,800, representing a gain of 6.7 per cent on the week and 2.8 per cent rise on the year.

Although the lockdown had a minimal impact on Melbourne’s weekend auction results, moving forward, Dr Wilson said Melbourne’s auction market is in for a “significant impact”.

“The outlook remains uncertain with much depending on the length and severity of current restrictions.

“Underlying local housing market supply and demand dynamics, however, clearly remain strong overall,” Dr Wilson said.

As for Sydney, Dr Wilson predicted it would break auction clearance rate records over coming weekends with the remarkable prospect of heading above 90 per cent for the first time over a regular season weekend.