Rain and bad weather dampen auction market

AUCTION activity slumped over the week, with the cold weather and winter school holidays dampening the market.

According to CoreLogic’s preliminary figures for the week ending 14 July 2024, the clearance rate fell 3.7% to 71.0%, with last week’s 74.7% revised down to 66.5% on final count.

In total there were 1,478 auctions held over the last week, a 16.8% dive from the previous week’s 1,776 auctions and falling below last year’s levels.

In Sydney the preliminary rate fell 7.8% to 68.9%, after last week’s strong results when the city saw its highest result since early May.

Sydney held 547 auctions over the week, up from last week’s 756, with just 266 cleared auctions.

“In contrast, Melbourne recorded its second strongest early clearance rate of the year last week, with 73.0% of the 609 homes auctioned returning positive outcomes,” said Caitlin Fono, research analyst at CoreLogic Australia.

“The previous week’s early success rate of 70.2% was revised to 60.9% at final numbers. This was one of the largest revisions between the preliminary and final clearance rate so far this year; the average revision through the year- to-date has been -6.5 percentage points.”

Adelaide managed to maintain a strong preliminary clearance rate at 84.9%, with 111 auctions taking place and 45 cleared.

While Brisbane recorded 149 auctions and saw a decline in the preliminary clearance rate from 78.9% to 63.5%, with 61 cleared.

Canberra’s rate came in at 64.5%, with 49 auctions held and 20 cleared.

While Perth recorded 11 auctions over the week and Tasmania held just two.

“Auction activity is set to rebound this week, with just shy of 1,800 auctions currently scheduled across the combined capitals,” added Fono.