Auction activity still dampened by lockdowns

However, the actual number of auctions is likely to be revised downwards as lockdowns and restrictions persist in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra, according to researcher Caitlin Fono.

Melbourne continues to top auction expectations, with 1,179 scheduled auctions for the week – up from last week’s 884. Should all of these auctions go ahead, the Victorian capital is set to see its busiest auction week since late June.

But with the Greater Melbourne area still stuck in lockdown, some of the auctions are expected to be rescheduled to a later date, Ms Fono said.

Meanwhile, Sydney has 535 homes set for auction this week, up slightly on last week’s 551.

Across the smaller auction markets, Brisbane is expected to be the busiest with 137 homes poised to go under the hammer, followed by Adelaide with 135, Canberra with 107 and Perth with 13.

Last week’s results

Combined capital cities recorded a final clearance rate of 70 per cent out of 1,822 auctions over the week ending 15 August – down from last week’s 74 per cent out of a lower 1,606 auctions and the lowest clearance rate of the year so far.

Canberra was still the most successful capital city auction market, with the final clearance rate of 85.4 per cent resulting from 82 auctions – in spite of the announcement of a snap lockdown affecting the territory on the Thursday.

Adelaide followed closely with an 82.7 per cent clearance rate across 134 auctions.

Despite its own extended lockdown, Sydney took the third spot, recording a success rate of 81.3 per cent clearance rate across 551 auctions – down 7.6 per cent from the originally scheduled number and the lowest weekly number of auctions over the current lockdown period to date.

According to Ms Fono, this is the first time that Sydney’s final clearance rate was back up above 80 per cent since May 2021.

Following Sydney was Brisbane with 70.1 per cent out of 157 auctions, Melbourne with 59.99 per cent out of 884 auctions, and Perth with 57.1 per cent out of 14 auctions.

Of the capital cities, only Sydney and Adelaide saw their clearance rates increase week-on-week.