The weekend saw the largest number of homes go under the hammer this year, with 3,522 auctions scheduled.
CoreLogic’s preliminary results reported a national clearance rate of 68.5%, down from 70.8% the prior week:
Source: CoreLogic
Sydney’s preliminary clearance rate fell by 3.4% to 70.8%, whereas Melbourne’s was dead flat at 68.6%.
After only five of his 11 scheduled auctions sold – “the lowest clearance I’ve had for a while”, leading Sydney agent and auctioneer, Tom Panos, warned that further interest rate rises from the RBA could knock the wind out of the market:
“I always thought to myself I bet you there’ll be a change in sentiment today with the talk of interest rates going up on Melbourne cup day, and also the chance that interest rates are going to go up again in December”.
“That media talk has actually scared some of the buyers. They still showed up, but they weren’t going that extra mile. They’re just being a little bit cautious”.
“I expect that there’s going to be a few owners who have been hoping for very high figures are going to get reality check at the moment because these rate rise talks are definitely going to impact buyers”.
“They might not pull out of the market, but they’re not going to pay the price that they were going to pay”.
According to CoreLogic, auction activity will remain high as we near the end of spring.
Therefore, elevated auction volumes, combined with interest rate hikes, could send clearance rates lower and slow price growth:
That said, ongoing strong population growth via record levels of immigration should still push home values higher overall, just at a slower pace than recent months.
