The national auction clearance rate rebounded over the weekend on the back of rises in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. However, volumes were down materially owing to the AFL Grand Final (go Hawks!).
According to RP Data, the national weighted average preliminary auction clearance rate was 72.0% over the weekend, which was up 2.8% from the 69.2% preliminary clearance rate reported last weekend. Sydney’s clearance rate rose by 1.6% to 78.5%, whereas Melbourne’s rose to 78.5% (last weekend 69.3%). Brisbane, which typically only has a small number of auctions, experienced an 8.6% jump in its clearance rate to 50.0%. Overall auction volumes (1,351) were down significantly on last weekend’s 2,536.
The trend in the national clearance rate remains flat, but is well above the levels recorded during the 2011 and 2012 housing bear market and around the same as this time last year (see next chart).
The Real Estate Institute of Victoria did not report a clearance rate due to the low number of reported results (22).
For Sydney, APM reported a preliminary clearance rate of 82% on 533 reported auctions, which compares to the 84% preliminary clearance rate on 443 reported auctions recorded last weekend.
