Auction activity up 13% – CoreLogic

Clearance rate remains above 70% for the third consecutive week

Auction activity up 13% – CoreLogic

Auction activity in the combined capitals increased by 13% this week, with a total of 1,912 auctions held, according to new data from CoreLogic.

In comparison, there were 1,692 auctions the previous week and 1,672 auctions during the same period last year.

The preliminary clearance rate for the combined capitals remained above 70% for the third consecutive week, with 75.3% of the 1,496 reported results indicating a successful outcome. The previous week's preliminary clearance rate was slightly lower at 74.4% (revised to 70.7% in the final figures), while this time last year, the clearance rate stood at 61.3%.

Larger capitals

Melbourne hosted 834 auctions this week, a 12.1% increase from the 744 auctions held the previous week, CoreLogic reported. With 696 results collected so far, Melbourne's preliminary clearance rate maintained above 70% for the sixth consecutive week, reaching 74.4%.

The preliminary clearance rate was slightly higher by 1.3 percentage points compared to the previous week (75.7%, revised to 70.4% in the final figures). In the same period last year, Melbourne had 712 auctions and a clearance rate of 62.2%.

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In Sydney, there were 762 auctions, a 17.2% increase from the 650 auctions held the previous week, and a substantial 43.2% increase from the 532 auctions during the same period last year. Of the 605 reported results, 78.2% were successful, representing the highest clearance rate among the capital cities and Sydney's second-highest preliminary clearance rate this year. This marks the 10th consecutive week where the preliminary clearance rate has remained above 70%, according to CoreLogic.

The previous week's preliminary clearance rate was slightly lower at 76.2% (revised to 72.3% in the final figures), while this time last year, only 58.4% of auctions achieved a successful result.

Smaller capitals

Among the smaller capital cities, Brisbane had the highest auction activity this week, with 121 auctions, followed by Adelaide with 104 auctions, and Canberra with 72 auctions.

Adelaide recorded the strongest preliminary clearance rate among the smaller capitals at 78%, followed by Canberra at 76.9% and Brisbane at 63.4%, CoreLogic reported. In Perth, seven out of the 13 reported results were successful, while no auctions were scheduled in Tasmania for this week.

Auction volumes have been rising slowly in recent weeks amid predictions that the housing slump is largely over.

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