The week ending August 26 saw 1,909 homes being taken to auction across the combined capital cities in the country, and this figure was evidently greater than the 1,684 recorded over the past week, according to CoreLogic’s Property Market Indicator Summary
In the same way, the preliminary clearance rate of 57.9% this week was higher than last week’s final clearance rate of 53.3%. However, when compared over the same week in 2017, which registered a final clearance rate of 68.3%, the number is still lower. CoreLogic noted though that there might be slight changes since results are still being finalised.
Melbourne, known for being one of the busiest auction markets, recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 58.6% across 898 auctions this week. During the preceding week, only 860 auctions were logged with a final clearance rate of 54%.
In Sydney, a total of 717 homes went under the hammer, returning a preliminary clearance rate of 59.1%. In comparison to the previous week, there were 572 auctions held in New South Wales’ capital and the final auction clearance rate was 51.9%.
The most expensive property sold over the week was a three-bed, two-bath, and two-car house in Dover Heights, New South Wales (NSW) which sold for $6,000,000. The second-highest sale, meanwhile, was in Bronte, NSW: a four-bed, three-bath, and two-car house that went for $ 4,500,000.
Referencing last week’s report, Perth was again the city with the highest median “time on market” length among houses at 89 days this week. Darwin came second (70 days), followed by Brisbane (67 days).
“As Auction volumes have slowly started to increase over the last couple of weeks however current volumes remain lower than this time last year when 2,270 auctions were held.”
“Through winter, the number of homes taken to auction has been tracking roughly 20% lower than a year ago, highlighting a substantial weakening in vendor confidence driven by the softer housing market conditions and consistently lower clearance rates,” noted CoreLogic.
