Australian auction market predicted to skyrocket after last week’s lull

• Auction activity surge expected, with Melbourne poised for its second busiest week.
• Fall in auction activity last week due to multiple public holidays across states and territories.
• Drop in vendor confidence and increased withdrawal rates contribute to the lower clearance rates.

Driven by a surge in Melbourne, over twice as much auction activity is predicted to occur this week, with 2,553 homes set for auction, according to CoreLogic‘s latest Auction Market Preview.

Auction Market Preview for the Week ending 8 October 2023

At the same time last year, dwindling values and growing interest rates saw the auctioning of only 1,815 homes. This week in Sydney, 998 homes are set to go under the hammer, a 39.8% week-on-week improvement. The prior week saw 714 auctions around Sydney, up from the 681 homes auctioned off at the same time last year.

Auctions this week

Having plunged to 203 last week, Melbourne’s auction activity is expected to soar this week, with 1,171 homes slated for auction, potentially the city’s second busiest week. In comparison, this time last year, only 743 homes were auctioned.

Week-on-week auction activity is forecasted to increase across Canberra, Adelaide, and Brisbane by 54.2%, 50.6% and 22.9%, respectively.

Brisbane is poised to hold the most auctions among the smaller capitals, with 134 homes scheduled to go under the hammer, 125 in Adelaide, and 111 in Canberra.

Dropping from the 15 homes of last week, only 11 homes are set to be auctioned in Perth this week, while Tasmania has a mere three homes scheduled to go under the hammer.

Summary of last week’s results

Last week was Australia’s slowest auction week since mid-June, with multiple public holidays across five of the eight states and territories seeing only 1,198 auctions being held across the capitals, more than half of the 2,648 auctioned off the week prior.

Capital city auction statistics (Final) – week ending 1 October 2023

Source: CoreLogic.

Accompanying the nosedive in auction activity was a decrease in the combined capital’s clearance.

The clearance rate fell to 64.4% last week, not far off from the rate recorded two weeks ago, both tying for the lowest since Easter’s 61.5%.

The previous week’s clearance rate was 1.7 percentage points higher, at 66.1%.

Weekly clearance rate, combined capital cities

A drop in vendor confidence caused the dip; the combined capital’s withdrawal rate rose to 11.3%, the highest level seen since mid-March’s 11.4%. Properties passed at auction dropped to 24.3%.

Sydney was bustling with auction activity last week, with 714 homes auctioned, albeit a 29.8% decrease from the 1,017 seen the week prior.

With a 64.0% clearance rate, Sydney had its lowest clearance rate in eight weeks, down from the 70.0% of the previous week. Withdrawals rose to 13.4%, surging from the 9.9% the week prior.

Melbourne’s auction activity fell to 203 last week, far under the 1,092 auctions of the week prior and 833 auctions held over the same time last year.

Clearance rates in Melbourne were at an 11-week high, with 66.5% of auctions being successful, a 2.6 percentage point increase from the 63.9% of the week prior. This time last year in Melbourne, the clearance rate was 4.4 percentage points lower at 62.1%.

Auction activity halved across most of the smaller capitals, with Brisbane, Adelaide and Canberra reporting falls of 53.8%, 52.8% and 32.7%, respectively.

Brisbane had the most active auction week among the smaller capitals, hosting 109 auctions, followed by 83 in Adelaide and 72 in Canberra.

On the other hand, Adelaide had the best auction clearance rate, with 72.3% of the auctions going through successfully. Brisbane and Canberra posted clearance rates of 63.3% and 58.3%, respectively.

Meanwhile, seven of the 15 auctions hosted in Perth were successful, while the two homes scheduled for auction in Tasmania were sold successfully.