By Duane Kaak, Research Analyst, CoreLogic Australia
Capital city auction activity is set to reduce by -11.3% week-on-week with 1,588 homes expected to go under the hammer, down from the 1,791 auctioned last week. This week’s activity includes 78 homes that are scheduled to go under the hammer on Friday, the last day of the financial year, with 27 properties being auctioned ‘in room’ on the Gold Coast.
Last year, a -20.4% decrease in numbers week-on-week was observed for the last week of the financial year, as vendors reacted to colder weather and news of future interest rate rises, when 1,881 homes were auctioned across the combined capitals.
Sydney is set to host the most auctions this week, with 735 homes scheduled across the city, bucking the seasonal slowdown to be up 11 properties (1.5%) from last week’s 724 auctions held, but down -2.8% on the 756 held this week last year. Above nationwide trends, weekday auctions account for 27.2% of this week’s activity, up 11.2 percentage points on 15.6% last week. The SA4 region of North Sydney & Hornsby has the largest share of this week’s activity with 15.4% of the homes being auctioned in this area.
Melbourne auction numbers drop -28.5% this week, from 744 last week down to 532 homes scheduled to go under the hammer across the city. This is -18.7% less than this week last year when 654 auctions were held. Units continue to provide a significant contribution to the city’s overall activity at 39.5%, up significantly from last week’s share of unit auctions. The SA4 regions of Melbourne-West and Melbourne-North West are the two busiest areas this week, together accounting for 32.0% of the city’s auction activity.
Auction activity across the smaller capital cities is expected to hold reasonably firm, with 321 auctions scheduled, down two properties from the 323 auctions held last week. Brisbane is set to be the busiest among the smaller capitals, with 132 homes scheduled for auction, down two homes from last week (-1.5%). This is followed by Adelaide with 114 homes set for auction, up 12.9% from the 101 auctions held last week. Canberra activity reduces -10.3% this week, with 70 homes set to go under the hammer. In Perth, five homes are scheduled for auction, four less than last week, while no properties are scheduled for auction in Tasmania.
Capital city auction activity is expected to reduce by roughly -9% through the first week of July, with around 1,450 homes currently scheduled for auction.
Summary of last week’s results
Auction activity decreased -7.9% last week, with 1,791 homes taken to auction across the combined capitals. This week last year, 2,364 auctions were held across the combined capitals. With 68.6% of auctions reporting a successful result, last week’s combined capitals clearance rate decreased -60 basis points from the previous week’s rate of 69.2%, the third week in a row where the combined capitals clearance rate was below 70%. Excluding the recent long weekend results, this week’s combined capital cities clearance rate was the lowest in eight weeks. This time last year, a clearance rate of 56.8% was recorded.