High withdrawal levels pushes Melbourne auction clearance rate below 50 per cent for second consecutive week

The auction slowdown in Melbourne continued this weekend as nervous vendors pushed down the city’s success rate, which fell well behind bustling Sydney.

Barry Plant auctioneer Mitchell Falzon auctions 91 Swanston St, Geelong, last weekend. Picture: Glenn Ferguson

Two in five homes slated for auction at the weekend in Melbourne were withdrawn from sale as the number of successful sales fell below half for the second consecutive week in the face of citywide lockdowns.

The auction slowdown in the usually bustling Melbourne market is being reflected in both ­volumes and the success rate, which have each fallen significantly behind Sydney.

Preliminary clearance rate data from property researcher CoreLogic showed 49.8 per cent of the 545 homes taken to the ­auction block last week in Melbourne sold, compared with the 68.3 per cent strike rate in Sydney from 602 listings.

The national clearance rate sat at a preliminary 59.2 per cent from 1344 auctions.

Withdrawal rates in the locked-down city hit 41 per cent of scheduled auctions, all of which are counted as failed sales in the data. Sydney’s withdrawals hit just 16 per cent last week.

CoreLogic said nervous sellers were partly to blame for the low results, with adjusted figures showing underlying demand from buyers.

“Removing withdrawn auctions from the clearance rate calculation shows the two markets are returning a similar ‘adjusted’ reading in the low 80 per cent range, highlighting that those properties which aren’t withdrawn from the market are still finding buyers,” the data firm said.

The consistently strong performing Canberra market continued its run, reporting the highest preliminary clearance rate of 80.5 per cent from 51 sales.

Adelaide returned a rate of 60.7 per cent from 62 auctions, followed by Brisbane (43.9 per cent from 69) and Perth (28.6 per cent from 14).

By Sunday morning, 1044 results had been recorded by the data house, with preliminary figures likely to be pushed lower in coming days.

While the number of properties taken to market is slightly lower than the same week last year (1124 properties), a clearance of 68.6 per cent was reached.

About three-quarters of homes sold in Sydney and Melbourne in that period, but only 394 homes were being tried on the market in Sydney.