The worst suburbs in Australia to auction your home

AUSSIES have had auction fever in recent years — but it’s grinding to a sudden halt. And some suburbs are being hit particularly badly.

This home has plenty of street appeal. But it’s located in Kellyville, so it would have had little chance of selling under the hammer.

SYDNEY’S Kellyville is the worst place in Australia to sell a house at auction, with the lowest clearance rates in the country.

More than three in four homes are failing to sell in the suburb, which is located in Sydney’s north west.

Auction clearance rates are falling across the country according to data released by CoreLogic, but some suburbs are being hit harder than most.

Suburbs throughout Sydney’s city have been hit hard, with areas in the city’s west, north west, and the Shire all failing to sell. While they’re spread across a large area geographically, mostly it’s the middle and outer ring suburbs that aren’t selling at auction.

This home has plenty of street appeal. But it’s located in Kellyville, so it would have had little chance of selling under the hammer.

It’s a similar story in Melbourne. Struggling suburbs aren’t limited to one pocket of the city, but spread throughout — as close in as Chadstone, famous for it’s huge shopping centre, and as far out as Rosebud on the Mornington Peninsula.

Nine of the 20 worst suburbs to sell at auction in Australia are in Sydney, according to CoreLogic’s Quarterly Auction Market Update.

PASSED IN

Comparing Sydney and Melbourne clearance rates the story is pretty clear: times are not as good as they once were. Clearance rates on average have now fallen to 53.6 per cent nationally. That’s down -4.2 per cent over the September Quarter, and down from 67.8 per cent a year ago.

The figures are vastly different across Australia. In Perth, the clearance rate has actually improved in the most recent quarter, but it’s still at a lowly 36.9 per cent.

Adelaide is steady (up 0.1 per cent to 60.7 per cent), but they have fallen slightly over the year. In September 2017 their clearance rate was 63.1 per cent.

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Hobart’s figures are curious. Even though prices in the city have been rising, the auction clearance rate has fallen by 7.1 per cent in the September quarter That’s a bigger fall than Sydney or Melbourne, but it’s largely due to the lack of auctions that take place there. So the percentage is affected by fewer homes.

For comparison’s sake, CoreLogic Figures show fewer auctions in Tasmania than in Kellyville, Australia’s worst performing suburb: 39 in the entire Apple Isle compared to 43 in one Sydney suburb.

A DIVIDED COUNTRY

Those low auction numbers aren’t just limited to Tasmania. If you’ve been buying or selling in Sydney or Melbourne over the past decade you’d be forgiven for thinking that auction is the only way to purchase property.

But the same can’t be said for most other areas of Australia.

This quarter Melbourne has had 9629 auctions. Sydney has had 7497. But our third biggest city Brisbane has only had 1401. And even that number is considered an abnormality — usually it’s lower than that.

Auctioneers are only popular in Sydney and Melbourne. And as they’re having to work harder than ever for a sale, it’s likely we’ll see more private sales in the months to come.

If you’re looking to buy a home in any area outside the two major capitals, chances are you’re going to purchase through a private sale.

Mozo housing expert Steve Jovceski said that this huge divide in the way different parts of Australia sell their homes isn’t new, and examining auction data is mainly an indication of how our two biggest cities are performing.

Mr Jovceski told news.com.au that the CoreLogic results were unsurprising and gave “an indication of how the property market (in our largest cities) is travelling.”

“In Sydney those outer suburban areas that perform well in the boom times don’t when things are quiet,” he said.

“Melbourne seems to be more a mixed bag, it depends on the suburb itself.”

GOING ONCE, GOING TWICE … SOLD!

While many areas in our two biggest markets were struggling, there are a few suburbs that are still selling under the hammer.

Narrabundah in Canberra is Australia’s best performing suburb, with 85.7 per cent of homes selling at auction, with buyers seemingly very happy with being close, but not too close to parliament and Lake Burley Griffin.

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Wheelers Hill in Melbourne’s south east was that city’s best performing suburb, with more than four in five homes going under the hammer being snapped up.

Sydney’s Bondi was close behind, with plenty of people still clearly seeking the beach lifestyle. The suburb recorded an 80.6 per cent clearance rate for the September quarter.

Mr Jovceski said he’s not surprised at these figures, with most of the best performing suburbs located close to our major cities, in traditional blue-ribbon areas.

“The trend still seems to be that the quality suburbs are performing better” he said.

Bondi is full of older apartments like this, and they’re all still selling well. Picture: Realestate.com.au

AUSTRALIA’S WORST PERFORMING SUBURBS

Sydney in particular has been hit hard with falling clearance rates. Source: CoreLogic

AUSTRALIA’S BEST PERFORMING SUBURBS

Many blue ribbon suburbs around Australia are still selling under the hammer. Source: CoreLogic

— David Ross is a freelance journalist. Follow him on Twitter: @FakeDavidRoss