Auction clearance rates over the weekend rebounded in Australia’s two largest markets.
In New South Wales, the clearance rate of 63% was an improvement on last week’s 59%. However, auction volumes remain well down on ‘normal’ levels, with only 272 auctions reported over the weekend. This compares to 350 reported auctions last week and 350 auctions reported in the same weekend of last year.
In Victoria, last weekend’s reported clearance rate of 55% was revised down to 52%, which was the worst result so far this year. This weekend, however, the clearance rate (unrevised) came in at 61%, which is in-line with the average clearance rate over the first six months of 2012.
However, auction volumes were well down on normal levels, with only 342 auctions reported to the REIV, compared with 375 last week and 407 on the same weekend of last year.
One of the big trends to emerge over the past year has been the increasing reluctance of sellers to go to auction, with the REIV recently reporting that only 25% of Victorian housing transactions occured via auction in the year to June 2012, versus 28% in the year to June 2011. Total auction sales also fell -21% below the five-year average, versus a decline in total housing transactions of -14% (see below table).
