Australia’s housing market continues to strengthen.
CoreLogic recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 73.5% this weekend from 2,775 auctions held.
This was the largest number of auctions so far this year, up 36% on the week prior and 14% higher than the same week a year ago.
After recording preliminary clearance rates above 80% the previous two weeks, Sydney’s preliminary clearance rate fell slightly to 77.3% across 981 auctions.
Melbourne’s preliminary clearance rate also fell to 70.6%, which was the lowest so far this year but still far higher than levels seen late last year.
Over the last three weeks, the preliminary auction clearance rate has been revised down by an average of 6.1 percentage points upon final results.
This suggests that the capital city clearance rate will fall to around 67% once the final results are calculated.
The strong rebound in the nation’s auction clearance this year portends stronger price growth, as illustrated in the next chart:
Unsurprisingly, Sydney and Melbourne have led a rebound in growth for CoreLogic’s daily dwelling values index through February:
With the Reserve Bank of Australia likely to lower interest rates later this year, it should add further momentum to the market in the face of relentless population growth.
