Auction activity: Is this the ‘best winter market ever’?

It’s more than the previous week, where just 1,413 homes went under the hammer – thanks to the Queen’s Birthday long weekend being celebrated across a number of states and territories.

The figures were also higher than the same time last year, when just 1,251 auctions took place.

According to CoreLogic, Melbourne once again bore the brunt of the downward revision.

The Victorian capital saw only 786 auctions this week, despite 935 originally being scheduled – although it’s still higher than last week’s 355 and last year’s 588 over the same week.

Despite the lower volume, Ray White Victoria and Tasmania chief auctioneer Matt Condon said preliminary data does show an increase in the average number of registered and active bidders at each auction.

He said: “It was clear that the recent lockdown has created a lot of pent-up demand, with buyers bidding aggressively and doing everything possible to secure their desired property.” 

The auctioneer also noted that many Melbourne sellers are keen to offload their properties prior to stamp duty changes which are set to come into force on 1 July 2021.

Buyers are also out in force after being halted by the recent lockdown.

Up in Sydney, the highest auction volume was recorded – with 1,174 auctions taking place – higher than last week’s 745 and last year’s 522.

“With a relatively low withdrawal rate and high preliminary clearance rate, it looks like the recent outbreak hasn’t had a material impact on Sydney auction markets,” the report noted.

In fact, Ray White Surry Hills | Glebe | Alexandria | Erskineville director Matthew Carvalho believes that “we are in for our best winter market ever”.

“Stock is still a little on the tight side, which is helpful for creating competition,” he added.

The smaller capital cities continued to see significantly lower auction volumes, with Brisbane at 186, Adelaide at 143, Canberra at 109, and Perth at 18.

Perth was the only capital city to report a decline on the previous week’s numbers.

Amid the increase in auction volumes, clearance rates held steady across the combined capital cities, CoreLogic found.

Of the 1,955 results collected so far, 77.8 per cent were successful – an increase from the previous week’s final clearance rate of 73.6 per cent.

Sydney recorded the highest preliminary clearance rate at 82.6 per cent, followed by Brisbane at 79.1 per cent, Canberra at 78.1 per cent, Adelaide at 74.5 per cent, Melbourne at 71.5 per cent, and Perth at 54.5 per cent.

All capital cities except Canberra, Adelaide and Perth saw increases in their clearance rates compared with last week’s results.