By Caitlin Fono, Research Analyst, CoreLogic Australia
Auction volumes are set to dip due to the Easter long weekend with 913 capital city homes currently scheduled to go under the hammer. We usually see some revision in auction volumes once numbers are finalised, meaning this week could potentially overtake Easter 2022 (926) as the busiest Easter on record.
Current expected volumes are 40.0% higher than Easter last year (w/e 9th April 2023) when just 652 auctions were held. Last week saw 3,519 homes taken to auction, while this time last year, 2,687 auctions were held across the combined capitals (noting this was the week prior to Easter 2023).
Sydney is set to be the busiest auction market this week. There are 429 homes currently scheduled to go under the hammer across the city, down -64.2% on last week (1,199) and -57.8% lower than this time last year (1,017). Easter 2023 saw 371 homes taken to auction across Sydney.
There are just 281 homes scheduled to go under the hammer in Melbourne this week, down -84.0% from last week (1,760) and -76.6% lower than this time last year (1,202). In comparison, Easter 2023 saw 108 homes taken to auction across the city.
Across the smaller capital cities, Brisbane is set to host 96 auctions this week, down -61.3% from last week when 248 auctions were held. There are currently 56 auctions scheduled in Adelaide, down -71.0% from last week (193) and 47 in Canberra, down -54.8% week-on-week (104). There are just four auctions scheduled in Perth, down from 14 last week, while there are no auctions scheduled in Tasmania.
Summary of last week’s results
There were 3,519 homes taken to auction across the combined capital cities last week, overtaking the w/e 29th October 2023 (3,381) as the busiest auction week since the week prior to Easter 2022 (4,035). The previous week saw 2,834 homes taken to auction, while this time last year, 2,303 auctions were held across the combined capitals.
A final combined capital city clearance rate of 65.8% was recorded last week, down from 66.7% over the previous week. This is the lowest final clearance rate since the week ending 17th December 2023 (56.6%). One year ago, 66.7% of auctions were successful.
In Melbourne, 1,760 homes were taken to auction last week, compared to 1,483 over the previous week and 1,137 this time last year. This was Melbourne’s busiest auction week since the w/e 10th April 2022 (1,795). Melbourne’s final clearance rate came in at 63.0% last week, down from 66.4% over the previous week. This time last year, 69.0% of auctions were successful.
There were 1,199 auctions held across Sydney last week, up from 873 over the previous week and 790 this time last year. Like Melbourne, this was Sydney’s busiest auction week since the week prior to Easter 2022 (1,490). Sydney’s final clearance rate came in at 70.4% last week, up from 66.5% over the previous week. One year ago, 67.2% of auctions were successful.
Across the smaller capital cities, Adelaide recorded the highest clearance rate last week (69.3%), followed by Canberra (63.5%), Brisbane (63.2%) and Perth (50.0%). Brisbane was host to 248 auctions last week, followed by Adelaide (193), Canberra (104) and Perth (14). There was just one auction in Tasmania last week, which was withdrawn.