Sydney's auction activity took a dive over the past weekend due to the NRL grand final, with auction volume dropping significantly to only 316 homes, figures from CoreLogic show.
The city returned a preliminary clearance rate of 79.8%, higher than the previous week's final success rate of 74.8%. Despite this, Sydney's auction activity was significantly lower than the 950 homes recorded over the preceding week, which marked the city's busiest week since November last year.
Even with Sydney's slump, the overall auction volume recovered slightly, up from 1,278 to 1,324. The combined capital-city success rate, however, slowed down to 71.3%.
"As the remaining results are collected, it's likely that the final clearance rate will revise below 70% for the first time since mid-August," CoreLogic research analyst Caitlin Fono said.
Melbourne's auction market managed to get busy again after a dismal showing during the previous week due to the AFL grand final. There were 777 homes taken into auction in the city, returning a clearance rate of 73.8%.
A stable success rate was also recorded in Canberra — of the 31 auctions that took place, 74% were successful. Brisbane, on the other hand, contributed to the slowing of the overall auction market. The city’s clearance rate registered at 32% for 92 auctions held.
Here's a snapshot of the auction performance of each capital city over the weekend:
