Lockdowns buoy strong auction results

Lockdowns dealt a blow to auction numbers last week, helping to underpin the strong clearance rates.

In Brisbane, Ray White New Farm principal and auctioneer Haesley Cush sold five properties at auction for more than $10 million on Saturday. Picture: Ray White

Lockdowns dealt a blow to auction numbers last week, helping to underpin the strong clearance rates.

Last week saw the country’s three largest cities – Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane – end the week in lockdown following continued Covid-19 outbreaks.

As a result, the number of properties taken to auction fell week-on-week to 1672 auctions, with preliminary data from researcher CoreLogic finding just over three quarters (76.4 per cent) sold.

While final numbers are not expected until later in the week, early data shows 10 per cent of properties originally scheduled for auction last week were rescheduled to a later date.

CoreLogic’s research executive Tim Lawless said the high levels of properties sold prior and withdrawals suggested vendor confidence might be waning.

“That really says to me that if vendors were super confident, they would be selling under the hammer and testing the market,” Mr Lawless said.

“But it looks like they’re much more willing to accept that offer beforehand if it’s reasonable, and no doubt there is still some good offers coming in as this is still a really tight seller’s market.”

Melbourne was the busiest auction market this week with 710 homes taken to auction, delivering a preliminary clearance rate of 73.5 per cent, down 3.6 percentage points from last week.

While an additional 54 properties were auctioned across the city over the past seven days, this figure was down 15 per cent on the number predicted ahead of the lockdown announcement. Of the figures reported for this week so far, 18 per cent of properties were reportedly withdrawn, and of the results received, more than a third were sold prior.

Almost two-thirds (63.3 per cent) of the 576 homes taken to auction in Sydney sold prior to the event on preliminary count.

Sellers in Brisbane appear to have been spooked by their lockdown, with 22.5 per cent of the 160 properties scheduled for auction this weekend being withdrawn and almost half (47.3 per cent) selling before the hammer fell.

Overall preliminary figures show a clearance rate of 67.4 per cent.