A fortnight ago, SQM Research managing director Louis Christopher warned that Melbourne faced “housing price falls… driven by the further deterioration in auction clearance rates over very recent weeks”.
Over the weekend, CoreLogic recorded the lowest preliminary clearance rate since the week ending 9 June, with only 66.9% of auctions clearing based on preliminary results.
Source: CoreLogic
This suggests that Melbourne’s clearance rate will fall to the low-60s range once final results are reported.
CoreLogic’s daily dwelling values index also shows that Melbourne home values continue to fall, down 0.3% over the past 28-days, to be the only major capital market recording declining values:
Melbourne is also the only major capital city to record falling dwelling values over 2024, down 0.7%:
CoreLogic research director Tim Lawless noted over the weekend that Melbourne “buyers have more choice” with “listings [that] are close to 14% above the previous five-year average and 17% higher than at the same time last year”.
Source: CoreLogic
One of the reasons cited for the decline in Melbourne home values is that investors have abandoned the market in favour of other jurisdictions:
A survey by the Property Investment Professionals of Australia (PIPA), reported in the ABC, claimed that “talk of Victorian investors selling up is rife, with investor groups blaming interest rates, increased land taxes, and the scrapping of no-fault evictions”.
An upside to the decline in property investors and falling values is that it has made Melbourne housing relatively more affordable for first-time buyers.
