Sydney auction rates surge, Melbourne dips

Nearly nine out of every 10 Sydney homes that went to auction this weekend were sold, pushing the city’s clearance rates up to fresh highs for the year.

Gartland auctioneer Tom Luxton at the auction of 8 Verner St, South Geelong. Picture: Peter Ristevski

Nearly nine out of every 10 Sydney homes that went to auction this weekend were sold, pushing the city’s clearance rates up to fresh highs for the year, although the Melbourne property market lost some momentum following this month’s snap lockdown.

However property sales remain strong across the nation with clearance rates still in the mid-80 per cent mark buoyed by ultra-low interest rates, a faster-than-expected rebound in the jobs market and a pick-up in economic growth.

Of the 1,754 national auction results collected so far, 84.4 per cent have reported a sale, according to CoreLogic’s weekend market summary.

This is down slightly from last week’s preliminary auction clearance rate of 86.1 per cent, but up on the revised down to 77.1 per cent final figures.

Over the same week last year, 2,517 homes were taken to auction and 72.7 per cent of reported results were successful.

Sydney remains the one of the strongest market for sales with a preliminary clearance rate of 88.2 per cent across 769 auctions and up from the previous week’s preliminary clearance rate of 87.5 per cent, which revised down to 83.9 per cent at final figures.

Seller Victoria Kitanov outside the front of her home which sold Saturday at auction in Ashfield, Sydney, Australia. Picture: Gaye Gerard

This time last year, 74.5 per cent of reported Sydney auctions were successful.

“It is likely that Sydney’s final auction clearance rate will come in above 80.0 per cent for the third consecutive week,” CoreLogic said in its analysis of the market released Sunday.

On average Sydney house prices sold for $1.7m while units were sold for $950,000.

Melbourne’s preliminary clearance rate of 82.2 per cent was down from down from last week’s preliminary clearance rate of 87.8 per cent, but up from 70.6 per cent at final figures.

The large down revision last week was partly due to a spike in withdrawn auctions while the city was in lockdown, CoreLogic said with more than 25 per cent of reported auctions returning a withdrawn result.

Auctioneer Justin Nickerson of Brisbane Auctions. Pic Annette Dew

Across other cities, Canberra recorded the highest preliminary clearance rate at 92.4 per cent, up from 74 per cent this time last year.

This was followed by Adelaide with preliminary clearance rate of 85.4 per cent, up from 54.3 per cent a year ago and Brisbane at 79.4 per cent up from 45 per cent last year.

Perth clearances came in at 50 per cent up from just 25 per cent last year while no figures were available for Hobart.

Auction markets are set to be tested on a surge in property volumes next week, with close to 2,500 capital city auctions scheduled to be held.

CoreLogic’s median house price at this weekend’s auctions:

Sydney $1.703m

Melbourne $1.180m

Brisbane $895,000

Canberra $865,000

Adelaide $592,000

Perth N/A

Hobart N/A

CoreLogic’s median unit price at this weekend’s auctions

Sydney $950,000

Melbourne $699,000

Canberra N/A

Brisbane N/A

Adelaide N/A

Perth N/A

Hobart N/A

Originally published as Sydney auction rates surge, Melbourne dips