- New record hit for preliminary clearance rates
- Sydney and Melbourne have been consistently above 70%
- Rising prices helping sentiment
The resurgence in property markets has continued for another week, with the latest auction results showing preliminary clearance rates back above 75%, and prices across the major capital cities rising for another week.
According to CoreLogic Property Pulse, the spike in auction results has seen clearance rates hit their highest level since February 2022 – prior to the start of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) interest rate hiking cycle.
Sydney and Melbourne lead the way
Over the past weekend, Sydney recorded the strongest result, with 78.2% of properties selling at auction.
There were 762 auctions held across Sydney last weekend, 17.2% higher than the prior week and 43.2% above the 532 auctioned this time last year CoreLogic said.
The strong result was Sydney’s second-highest preliminary clearance rate this year, marking 10 consecutive weeks where the preliminary clearance rate has held above 70%
Melbourne also recorded a strong result with 74.4% successful on auction day across 834 auctions – 12.1% more than last week.
Melbourne’s preliminary clearance rate has now held above 70% for the sixth consecutive week. Last week’s preliminary clearance rate (75.7%, revised to 70.4% at final figures) was also 1.3% higher. This time last year, Melbourne hosted 712 auctions and reported a clearance rate of 62.2%, according to CoreLogic.
Auction results
| City | Clearance rate | Total auctions | CoreLogic auction results | Cleared auctions | Uncleared auctions |
| Sydney | 78.2% | 762 | 605 | 473 | 132 |
| Melbourne | 74.4% | 834 | 696 | 518 | 178 |
| Brisbane | 63.4% | 121 | 71 | 45 | 26 |
| Adelaide | 78.0% | 104 | 59 | 46 | 13 |
| Perth | 53.8% | 19 | 13 | 7 | 6 |
| Tasmania | n.a. | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Canberra | 76.9% | 72 | 52 | 40 | 12 |
| Weighted Average | 75.3% | 1,912 | 1,496 | 1,129 | 367 |
Source: CoreLogic.
Strong auction results
The combined capitals recorded a third week where the preliminary clearance rate held above 70%, with 75.3% of the 1,496 results collected so far reporting a successful result.
Auction Clearance Rates
Last week’s preliminary clearance rate was 90 basis points lower at 74.4% (revised to 70.7% at final figures), while this time last year, 61.3% of auctions held were successful.
Overall auction activity increased by 13%, with 1,912 auctions held across the combined capitals. The previous week saw 1,692 homes auctioned, while this time last year, 1,672 capital city auctions were held.
Across the smaller capital cities, Brisbane was the busiest auction market this week (121), followed by Adelaide (104) and Canberra (72).
CoreLogic said Adelaide recorded the strongest preliminary clearance rate across the smaller capitals, with 78.0% of auctions reporting a successful result, followed by Canberra (76.9%) and Brisbane (63.4%).
In Perth, seven of the 13 results so far were successful, while no auctions were scheduled in Tasmania this week.
Prices rising
The strong auction results come at a time when property prices continue to rise.
According to CoreLogic, across Australia’s five largest capital cities, prices rose 0.3% last week, again led by Sydney (0.4%) and Brisbane (0.4%).
Over the past month, Sydney prices are now 1.5% higher, followed by Brisbane (1.2%), Perth (1%), Adelaide (0.6%) and Melbourne (0.6%).
In the past 12 months, the five major cities are still down 7.4%, led by Sydney (-9.2%) and Brisbane (-9.5%).
