This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
THE Sydney and Melbourne residential auction markets faced their first big test for 2016 with a surge of listings, and they passed with higher clearance rates.
The Melbourne market was tested with 852 auctions and 656 properties sold resulting in a clearance rate of 77%, according to the REIV. The total value of properties was $585.66 million.
The result is up on the previous weekend’s 75% rate from 625 auctions and the same weekend last year’s 75% from 960 auctions.
REIV CEO Enzo Raimondo declared that the February auction market is stronger than any previous year – with more than 3000 auctions scheduled this month.
Domain senior economist Andrew Wilsons said the strength of Melbourne’s early season home auction market continues to encourage sellers with the best results for this time of the year since 2010.
“The Melbourne home auction market has made an encouraging start to the year so far with clearance rates over the past two weekends the highest recorded by the local market since September last year,” he added.
Sydney also chalked up a clearance rate of 77%. According to Domain, there were 559 properties listings and 419 auctions were reported, with 345 properties sold.
The total value of auction sales was $339.44 million.
Last weekend’s result improved on the previous weekend’s 74.3%.
Wilson said it has so far been a positive start to the year for the Sydney market, although he noted that auction volumes remain subdued so far this year with activity 27% lower when compared to the same period last year.
“This trend is likely to continue over coming weeks although higher clearance rates may encourage more sellers into the marketplace.
Wilson said the 77% clearance rate is the highest result since September last year, however it remains well below the boom-time 83.3% recorded last year.
“The Sydney auction market has made an unequivocally positive start to the year although stern challenges await,” he added.
Meanwhile Brisbane had 124 listings and reported 56 auctions last weekend, with 31 sales totalling $23.02 million.
Canberra recorded 57 listings, 42 auctions and 24 sales totalling $18.39 million.
And finally, Adelaide had 71 listings, 42 auctions and 29 sales totalling $10.35 million.
Australian Property Journal
