- Despite major capitals enduring longer lockdowns, auction clearance rates ticked up
- Sydney, now in its 8th week of lockdown, had its best results in three months
- Elsewhere, clearance rates were in the 70%'s and 80%'s
With major Australian capital cities and now regions enduring longer and longer lockdowns, one would have expected last week’s property auctions to be somewhat muted.
In fact, what we find is that across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, the clearance rate ticked up a bit, according to SQM Research.
Melbourne
Melbourne’s extended lockdown meant many of the originally scheduled property auctions were cancelled, withdrawn or postponed.
However, on slightly lower volumes (1,310 compared to 1,531 the week earlier) around a third of auctions did clear, even if we count those that were rescheduled as not clearing (as SQM does).
Melbourne: SQM Research data, Week ending 15 August 2021
Taking a longer-term view, the clearance rate was at the lower end of what it has been all year, but with extenuating circumstances. It is also up from 25.5% last week, and 29.4% from the week before. But it is not yet up at the levels enjoyed back in mid-July or from January to mid-May.
CoreLogic‘s auction calculation had a 63% successful rate, from among those that did go ahead, a dramatic decline from the 73.5% clearance rate the previous week.
Sydney
Now into its eight consecutive week of lockdown, auction-goers in the harbour city are more acclimatised to the online auction situation.
The clearance rate has been rising for the past three weeks, up to 66.2%, and almost back to where it was from the earlier part of the year where it had hovered between 60% and 70% from February through to June.
Sydney: SQM Research data, Week ending 15 August 2021
CoreLogic counted 562 auctions (about the same as the week before, with 576), with a high preliminary clearance rate of 82.9%, although that number excludes 16.8% that were either withdrawn or postponed. That would mean the ‘real’ clearance rate was nearer 66%, almost exactly the same as SQM’s number.
Auction clearances, Week ending 15 August 2021: CoreLogic Data
Elsewhere
Adelaide had a clearance rate of 84.8% last week according to CoreLogic, with 81.9% in Canberra, 74.6% in Brisbane and 70% in Perth.
