The national auction clearance rate remains stuck in the stratosphere, driven again by super strong demand in Sydney and Melbourne.
The preliminary national clearance rate was 79.2%, up marginally from the weekend before Easter (79.0%), with clearance rates still running at their strongest level in six years in trend terms, from RP Data:
Sydney’s clearance rate rose 3.5% to 88.3%, whereas Melbourne’s rose by 1.0% to 78.7%. Clearances in Brisbane, which typically only has a small number of auctions, fell to 48.3% from 50.9% in the weekend before Easter. Overall auction volumes (2,541) were also up sharply on the 1,568 auctions recorded last weekend.
As shown in the next chart, Melbourne has experienced the biggest pick-up in auction clearances over the past year, with the clearance rate up 20.6% on the same week of last year:
Sydney, too, has experienced explosive growth off a higher base, with the clearance rate up 17.3% over the past year, and recording 10 weeks in a row of clearances above 80%:
The Real Estate Institute of Victoria reported a preliminary clearance rate of 79% on 1,060 reported auctions, which was up slightly from the 78% clearance rate on 555 auctions reported in the weekend prior to Easter.
For Sydney, Domain (formerly APM) reported a preliminary clearance rate of 88% on 599 reported auctions, which was also up slightly on the 87% clearance rate on 417 auctions reported in the weekend before Easter.