CoreLogic has released its final auction results for last weekend, with clearances rising in the face of increasing volumes across the major cities.
The final national clearance rate was 70.3% last weekend, the highest since the week ending 4 June 2023 (73.1%). The prior weekend had a clearance rate of 68.3%, while this time last year, 62.8% of auctions were successful.
In Melbourne, 664 properties were auctioned last weekend, up from 625 the previous week and 564 this time last year.
Melbourne’s final clearance rate was 66.9%, down slightly from the previous week (67.1%), but still 5.9 percentage points higher than this time last year (61.0%).
Last weekend, there were 647 homes auctioned in Sydney, up from 583 the previous week and 601 this time last year.
Sydney achieved a final clearance rate of 75.4%, the highest since mid-February 2022. Last week’s performance was 4.8 percentage points higher than the previous week (70.6%), and 9.7 percentage points higher than the same weekend last year, when 65.7% of auctions were successful.
The surge in clearance rates points to rising home value growth:
However, to date, there has been no price acceleration, with CoreLogic’s daily dwelling values index flatlining at around 0.4% month-on-month growth at the 5-city aggregate level:
This suggests that vendors are more willing to meet buyers’ lower offers, hence the rise in clearances amid moderate price growth.
This weekend will see auction activity ramp-up even further, with 2,091 homes slated for auction across the combined capital cities, a 27.3% increase from the previous week (1,642) and a 13.3% increase from the same weekend last year (1,846).
737 houses are set to be auctioned in Sydney this week, up 13.9% from the previous week (647) and 7.4% higher than the same weekend last year (686).
Auction activity in Melbourne is expected to skyrocket, with 966 homes scheduled to go under the hammer, a 45.5% increase over the previous weekend (664). The same weekend saw 814 homes auctioned across the city.
It will be interesting to see whether the weight of volumes negatively impacts the clearance rate.