It is easy to have the feeling that the latest 0.25% interest rate hike from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) was ‘one too many’ for the property market.
CoreLogic’s preliminary auction results bombed for the second weekend in a row, with the national clearance rate falling a further 2.1% to 55.8% – the weakest preliminary result since early July:
Auction market ends 2022 with a whimper.
When we talk of the auction market, we are really only talking about Sydney and Melbourne. That is because these are the only markets where auctions are common and volumes are high.
As shown in the next chart, both Sydney’s and Melbourne’s preliminary clearance rates came in just below 58%, which will fall further once final results are counted:
Melbourne and Sydney clearance rates bomb.
Indeed, Melbourne’s 57.8% preliminary clearance rate was the lowest since late July, whereas Sydney’s 57.6% was the city’s lowest preliminary clearance rate since late August.
The end-of-year weakening of the auction market is also reflected in CoreLogic’s daily dwelling values index, which has recorded accelerating declines over December.
