Little improvement in clearance rates over big week of auctions

Early results indicate any improvement to the national auction clearance rate over the week will be a small one after a bumper week of auctions across the country.

According to CoreLogic RP Data, the preliminary national clearance rate sits a 71.3% from 2,820 auctions, which only sits slightly above the previous week’s final result of 69.9% from 2,565 auctions.

Melbourne was the nation’s busiest market last week with 1,197 auctions, and the city’s preliminary clearance rate sits at 73.3%, compared to the previous week’s final result of 73.7%.

If there is no movement in the preliminary rate, it will be the city’s fourth worst result of the year.

Across Melbourne’s individual sub-regions, the strongest preliminary clearance rate this week was across the Outer East region at 81.8%, followed by the Inner South region where the preliminary clearance rate was 80%.

Sydney had similar volumes to Melbourne over last week, with 1,193 auctions held.

The city’s preliminary clearance rate sits at 74.2%, but Louis Christopher, head of SQM Research told the Australian Financial Review he believes it will fall closer to the previous week’s final result of 70.7% as more results are recorded.

Christopher also believes the results of this nature point to Sydney entering a slowdown, rather than a crash as others have claimed.

“The market has slowed down in Sydney. Buyers are still there, but they are a little more cautious and there are more sellers,” Christopher told the Australian Financial Review

“We will see a slowdown in price growth in Sydney and Melbourne, but not as dramatic as some are saying. The market is still rising, but at 7 to 9% annually, instead of 15 to 20%,” Christopher said.

Last week, the strongest sub-region for clearance rates across Sydney was the Eastern Suburbs, with 89.8% of the reported results clearing at auction.

Brisbane’s preliminary clearance rate was 58.9%, compared to a final rate of 50% last week and 48.9% at the same time last year.

Adelaide has so far reported a preliminary rate of 68.8%, while Canberra’s preliminary clearance rate sits at 50%.

Perth’s clearance rate currently sits at 36.4%, while three sales have been recorded from 18 reported auctions in Tasmania.

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