By Caitlin Fono, Research Analyst, CoreLogic Australia

There are currently 2,215 capital city homes scheduled for auction this week, down from 2,617 last week and 2,884 this time last year. We expect this will be the quietest auction week since early November when auction activity dropped to 1,972 in the lead up to the Melbourne Cup.

Melbourne is set to host 1,003 auctions this week, after 1,236 homes were taken to auction last week. Over the same week last year, 1,398 auctions were held across the city.

There are 814 homes set to go under the hammer across Sydney this week, down from 927 last week and 934 over the same week last year.

Across the smaller capitals, Brisbane (164) and Adelaide (142) are the busiest auction markets this week, followed by Canberra (55). Perth is expecting its busiest auction week of the year, with 37 homes currently set to go under the hammer, while there are no auctions scheduled in Tasmania at this stage.

There are just under 850 capital city homes set for auction across the combined capital cities next week, and just a handful the following week in the lead up to Christmas.

Summary of last week’s results

There were 2,617 homes taken to auction across the combined capitals last week, down from 2,881 over the previous week and 3,042 over the same week last year.

The combined capital city clearance rate came in at 57.6% last week, down from 59.1% over the previous week and in line with this time last year (57.6%). This is the eight consecutive week the clearance rate has held below 60%.

There were 1,236 auctions in Melbourne last week, compared to 1,390 the previous week and 1,415 this time last year. Melbourne reported a clearance rate of 60.5%, down from 61.7% last week although higher than the 56.2% clearance rate recorded over the same week last year.

There were 927 homes taken to auction across Sydney last week, down from 1,031 over the previous week and 1,072 this time last year. Sydney’s final clearance dropped to 54.8% last week, the lowest the city has seen in almost two years (53.2% – week ending 18th December 2022). Over the same week last year, 57.0% of Sydney auctions were successful.

Brisbane (198) was the busiest auction market across the smaller capitals last week, followed by Adelaide (160), Canberra (78) and Perth (15). Perth recorded the highest clearance rate at 66.7%, followed by Adelaide (61.9%), Canberra (53.2%) and Brisbane (51.0%). There were three auctions in Tasmania last week, one of which was successful.

For the full Auction Market Preview, which includes a summary of last week’s clearance rates by sub-region, please see the attached PDF.Please note this is our final auction preview for the year, resuming in late January/early February, depending on the volume of auctions.