By Caitlin Fono, Research Analyst, CoreLogic Australia

There are 2,246 capital city homes currently scheduled for auction this week, up 4.7% from last week when 2,146 auctions were held and 19.0% higher than this time last year (1,887).

Melbourne is set to see auction volumes hold above 1,000 for the fourth consecutive week, with 1,050 homes up for auction. This week’s expected volumes are 4.1% higher than last week (1,009) and 24.4% higher than this time last year (844).

Sydney is expecting 806 auctions this week, up from 725 last week and 698 this time last year. This week is set to be Sydney’s busiest since the week ending 14th April (821).

Across the smaller capitals, Brisbane (153) and Adelaide (143) are expecting to see fewer homes taken to auction week-on-week, down from 178 and 156 respectively. Meanwhile, Canberra (81) and Perth (9) will see an increase in weekly auction numbers, up from 72 and 6 respectively. Four auctions are on the radar in Tasmania this week after last week saw no auctions take place.

Auction activity is expected to continue trending higher next week, with around 2,350 auctions currently scheduled across the combined capital cities.

Summary of last week’s results

There were 2,146 homes taken to auction across the combined capitals last week, -4.1% lower than the previous week (2,237) but 11.7% higher than this time last year (1,921).

The final clearance rate came in at 65.4% last week, 30 basis points higher than the previous week (65.1%), although -4.6 percentage points lower than a year ago (70.0%). Last week saw the withdrawal rate fall slightly, with 7.3% of homes withdrawn from auction, compared to 7.8% over the previous week. The portion of properties passed in at auction last week (27.3%) was relatively in line with the result seen over the previous two weeks (27.2%).

Sydney’s auction numbers were down -6.2% last week, with 725 homes auctioned across the city. The previous week saw 773 homes go under the hammer, while this time last year, 747 auctions were held. Sydney’s final clearance rate has been slipping over the past few weeks, coming in at 67.7% last week, -1.0 percentage point lower than the previous week (68.7%). This time last year, 72.1% of Sydney auctions were successful.

There were 1,009 homes taken to auction in Melbourne last week, down -8.6% from the previous week (1,104) but 17.7% higher than the same week last year (857). Melbourne’s final clearance rate rose 2.2 percentage points last week, coming in at 62.6%, after recording the second-lowest clearance rate so far this year the week prior (60.4%). Over the same week last year, 69.6% of homes taken to auction across Melbourne were successful.

Brisbane (178) was once again the busiest auction market across the smaller capitals last week, followed by Adelaide (156) and Canberra (72). Adelaide (82.7%) continued to record the highest clearance rate across the smaller capitals, followed by Brisbane (60.1%) and Canberra (56.9%). There were six auctions held in Perth last week, four of which were successful, while there were no auctions held in Tasmania.