The national auction clearance rate was essentially steady over the weekend, with small falls in Sydney and Brisbane offset by a small rise in Melbourne.
According to RP Data, the national weighted average preliminary auction clearance rate was 68.5% over the weekend, which was down 0.2% from the 68.7% preliminary clearance rate reported last weekend. Sydney’s clearance rate fell by 0.3% to 75.5%, whereas Melbourne’s rose to 68.0% (last weekend 67.2%). Brisbane, which typically only has a small number of auctions, experienced an 3.7% fall in its clearance rate to 50.5%. Overall auction volumes (2,422) were up slightly on last weekend’s 2,352.
The trend in the national clearance rate continues to fall, but remains well above the levels recorded during the 2011 and 2012 housing bear market and slightly below the same as this time last year (see next chart).
The Real Estate Institute of Victoria reported a preliminary clearance rate of 73% on 932 auctions reported to the REIV, which was down slightly from the 74% on 843 reported auctions recorded last weekend.
For Sydney, APM reported a preliminary clearance rate 81% on 478 reported auctions, which was up from the clearance rate of 79% recorded on 533 auctions last weekend.
