This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
THE Sydney residential auction market held the line on Saturday thanks to a fall in listings following the bumper Saturday in the previous weekend.
According to preliminary data from Domain Group, there were 885 listings and 530 properties went under the hammer with 369 properties selling. The figures represented a clearance rate of 57.5% and total sales of $325 million.
The clearance rate is improvement from the previous weekend’s 50.6% where there were 1,066 listings, 832 auctions and 495 sales totalling $452.4 million. The previous weekend was the highest recorded for a November Saturday and the fourth-highest on record. It is just below the all-time spring record of 1,088 set a month ago on October 31.
The result is weaker when compared to the same weekend last year where the clearance rate was 65.4% from 1,021 listings, 871 auctions and 633 sales totalling $677.7 million.
Domain senior economist Andrew Wilson said despite the steady result, Sydney has recorded consecutive weekend clearance rates below 60% for the first time since November 2012 and the local market is clearly looking for a breather over Christmas.
Despite the lowest spring clearance rates in three years, Sydney has recorded an all-time record spring for the number of auction sales, reflecting the unprecedented volume of homes going under the hammer in the past three months.
Wilson said $31 billion worth of properties have sold at auction so this year, $7 billion higher than the same time last year.
“The Sydney home auction market has finished spring on the slide with clearance rates at the lowest levels in three years. Record numbers of homes have nonetheless been sold under the hammer over the past three months. However, the sales peak was earlier in the spring.
“Market confidence remains fragile and particularly low in Sydney’s middle and outer western suburbs. Fewer than 2,000 homes will be auctioned in December and although still a challenging number for the local market, will nonetheless be well below the auctions in December last year,” Wilson said.
Down the south, Melbourne’s market continued to steam forward with 1,650 auction listings following a record 1,749 in the previous weekend, according to the REIV.
According to the preliminary data, so far 1,201 auctions were reported with 797 properties selling and 404 being passed in, 158 of those on a vendor bid.
This resulted in a clearance rate of 66% compared to 65% last week and 66% in the same week last year from 1,529 auctions.
Last weekend’s total auction sales was $729.66 million along with 409 private sales totalling $268.03 million.
REIV CEO Enzo Raimondo said the outer suburbs have experienced strong demand in auctions in the year to 30 November with about 5,400 properties sold by auction – up a significant 42% on the same time last year.
Craigieburn, Wheelers Hill, Ringwood, Parkdale, Mulgrave and Noble Park topped the list for the highest number of properties sold with more than a 100 sales in each.
There are more than 1,400 auctions scheduled next weekend, which will mark the final Super Saturday for the year.
Wilson said the weekend clearance rates averaged 70.1% over spring this year which is well below the 75.2% averaged over spring last year and the lowest result since the spring of 2012 that recorded an average weekend clearance rate of 61.2%.
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Australian Property Journal
