Amidst sharply falling house prices and rising interest rates, Australia’s preliminary clearance rate bounces back to its strongest record since late May, but auction rates fall by -2.0%.

Preliminary total auction rate

Based on CoreLogic’s latest data, auction activities slightly dipped as 1,883 homes went under the hammer across the combined capital cities. This marked a -2.0% decrease from last week’s early record of 1,921 and way lower compared to this time last year when 3,292 homes were taken to auction.

After shrinking to 602 auctions in the previous week because of the Melbourne Cup Carnival, Melbourne hosted the busiest auction activity as the city recorded 764 homes for auction – up from last week but down from last year’s record of 1,398.

While Melbourne saw an increase, Sydney’s auction rates were down by -6.7% as the city recorded 701 homes.

Of the smaller capitals, Adelaide held the busiest auction market as it recorded 156 auctions, a slight increase of 0.6% from last week. Following Adelaide was Brisbane with 131, which was -40.7% lower than last week.

Canberra had 114 homes for auctions, a -29.6% decrease from last week’s 162. Meanwhile, Perth’s record went down by -41.4% as it slid from 29 last week to 17 auctions this week. Tasmania didn’t record any auctions this week.

Preliminary total clearance rate 

After falling below the 60% mark last week, preliminary clearance rates across the combined capital cities bounced back to their highest record since late May.

Of the 1,468 results collected so far, 63.7% turned out successful, marking a 3.8% increase from the previous week’s record of 59.8% (revised to 58.8% in the final figures).

Melbourne’s early clearance rate hiked by 1.2% to 61.9% but was lower compared to last year’s record of 67.7% successful auctions.

Even if Sydney’s auction activity fell, the city had a 69.7% success rate – the highest preliminary clearance rate since mid-April (70.6%). This marked a 7.3% increase from last week’s early clearance rate but was a bit shy from this time last year’s record of 74.1%.

Coupled with the increase, Sydney’s withdrawal rate (15.5%) also recorded its lowest since mid-April.

After having a strong record of 68.2% last week, Adelaide had its lowest preliminary clearance rate since early August with 66.3%. Coming in second was Canberra with 60.9% and Brisbane with 43%. Meanwhile, Perth had five successful auctions of the 10 collected so far.

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Source: CoreLogic