Vendors spring to auction, listings continue to climb

AUCTION activity sprung back to life with the second highest number of homes going under the hammer for the season.

According to CoreLogic’s preliminary figures for the week ending 13 October 2024, the clearance rate was at 66.6% up from last week’s 63.9%—revised down to 59.5% on final numbers, reflecting the lowest finalised rate since last December.

In total there were 2,525 auctions held over the last week, up from the previous week’s 1,913. For the spring selling season this was the second busiest week after the week ending 22 September’s 2,781.

“Numbers are set to rise further over the coming weeks, with CoreLogic currently tracking around 2,600 properties scheduled for auction this week and more than 3,000 auctions over the following week,” said Caitlin Fono, research analyst at CoreLogic Australia.

In Sydney the preliminary rate was up from 62.7% to 69.0%, after recording its lowest result since December 2022 in the previous week.

1,004 auctions were held in Sydney over the week up from just 524 in the week prior, with 508 auctions cleared.

In Melbourne the preliminary rate was largely in line with the previous week’s results, up from 64.4% to 64.8%.

Melbourne saw a very marginal change in auctions held, with 1,044 compared to 1,059 last week, with 509 cleared.

Adelaide returned a lower preliminary clearance rate, dropping from 70.6% to 67.5%, its second lowest result for 2024, with 164 auctions taking place and 56 cleared.

While Brisbane again recorded the most auctions out of the smaller capitals, with 216 homes going under the hammer, 95 cleared and a preliminary clearance rate of 62.5%.

Canberra saw the strongest preliminary rate in the country this week, at 71.2%, with 83 auctions held and 37 cleared.

While Perth recorded 13 auctions over the week and Tasmania held just one.

“The coming weeks will test the depth of demand, as the volume of auctions ramps up,” added Fono.

“Historically, the peak in auction activity has typically occurred in late November or the first two weeks of December, although last year, the peak in auction activity was in the last week of October as activity was disrupted by the November rate hike.”