This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
AUCTION volumes are rising across Sydney and Melbourne but the clearance rate is weakening.
The spring selling season kicked off last weekend in Melbourne with over 1,000 auctions, the first of four consecutive weekends which will see over 1,000 properties go under the hammer, according to the REIV.
Last weekend in Melbourne, there were 1007 auctions and 759 properties sold totalling $714.73 million. There were 248 properties passed in, 92 of those on a vendor bid, resulting in a clearance rate of 75%.
The most expensive property sold was at 32 Heyington Place, Toorak for $4,605,000 and cheapest was at 12/69-71 Delhi Court, Travancore for $263,000.
The clearance in the previous weekend was 75% from 932 auctions and 73% from 941 auctions in the same weekend last year.
At the same time there were 381 private sales last weekend totalling $215.27 million.
REIV CEO Enzo Raimondo said there have been 25,800 auctions held in the year to date – the highest on record for any given year.
Despite the stable clearance rate last weekend, Raimondo said sales volumes have also been the highest on record, with an estimated 84,000 sales transacted so far this year.
Domain Group senior economist Andrew Wilson said whilst Melbourne’s weekend auction clearance rate tracked backwards, the market remains on track for a solid to strong spring selling season.
In Sydney last weekend, the clearance rate was 72.4% from 840 listings, 639 auctions and 500 sales totalling $502 million.
Compared to the previous weekend, it was 72.2% from 815 listings, 708 auctions and 555 sales totalling $581.7 million. In the same weekend last year, the clearance rate was 78.7% from 569 listings, 508 auctions and 417 sales totalling $441.8 million.
The most expensive property sold was at 88 Elizabeth Bay Rd, Elizabeth Bay for $7,400,000 and cheapest was 12/13 Speed St, Liverpool for $344,000.
“Sydney has listed 1643 Saturday auctions to begin the spring selling season over the past fortnight. This is 551 homes more, or an increase of 50.5%, than the 1092 auctioned over the first two weekends of September last year,” Wilson said. “Monthly records will continue to be broken over the remainder of September with the first spring Super Saturday of auctions on September 26,”
However, the high volume is affecting clearance rates.
“No surprise that unprecedented auction numbers are influencing clearance rates with a weaker but still relatively strong sellers’ market emerging in Sydney over recent months.
“The weekend auction market in Sydney clearly weakened over winter with clearance rates falling well below those recorded in autumn and lower than those recorded at the same time last year. Sydney has now recorded seven consecutive weekends below 80% following 22 consecutive weekends (excluding holidays) above 80%.
“The Sydney market was on the rise a year ago, with clearance rates consistently climbing above 80%. The rate reported for the same weekend last year was 82.7% – nearly 10% higher than that recorded last Saturday,” he continued.
According to Domain, higher priced regions have reported the highest clearances rate over recent weekends whereas lower-priced areas to the west and south west have been underperforming over the past month with clearance rates falling sharply.
Australian Property Journal
