A clearance rate above 90 per cent in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs and Northern Beaches sub-regions helped Sydney to get the title of best-performing capital city for the weekend’s auctions, new data shows.
According to CoreLogic’s Property Market Indicator summary for the week ending 28 July, Sydney scored a 78.5 per cent preliminary clearance rate, up from last week’s 72.8 per cent.
The improvement is attributable in part to an increase in volume, with 391 Sydney homes taken to auction this week, which is an increase from 303 on the prior week.
The increase in volume was visible across all capital cities, with 1,115 homes taken to auction across the combined capital cities, compared to 896 homes auctioned last week, which resulted in a preliminary auction clearance rate rise to 71.2 per cent from last week’s final clearance rate of 65.4 per cent.
According to CoreLogic, the weighted average clearance rate has improved over each of the last four weeks, coming in above the mid-60 range over the last two weeks and showing a vast improvement year-on-year when around 50–55 per cent of the homes taken to auction were reported as selling.
This above-average clearance weight contrasts significantly with year-on-year property volume, where the same period last year saw a reported 1,536 homes up for auction and a 55.6 per cent clearance rate across all capital cities.
This week also saw unit auction success rates drop in comparison to the past four weeks, where unit markets had been finishing with a higher final clearance rate each week, relative to the number of houses sold.
In contrast, this week’s preliminary clearance rates have shown the opposite: 71.9 per cent of houses sold at auction compared with 69.4 per cent of units.
Sydney
A 78.5 per cent preliminary clearance rate for Sydney was an improvement from last week’s 72.8 per cent final clearance rate.
The Eastern Suburbs (93.3 per cent) and Northern Beaches (92.6 per cent) were standout performers, with Sutherland reporting the third highest clearance rate of 81.6 per cent.
Across all other sub-regions, the Baulkham Hills and Hawkesbury area recorded the lowest clearance rate, which still offered a clearance rate of 50 per cent.
Sydney’s results mirror the overall volume and clearance trend, with last year’s clearance rate of 52.4 per cent coming from a total 469 auctions.
The city also saw 3,896 new listings over the past month, 32.5 per cent less than the same period last year.
Melbourne
Melbourne returned a 74 per cent preliminary auction clearance rate from 546 auctions, after last week clearing 67.5 per cent of property up for grabs.
The Inner South recorded an 89.1 per cent clearance rate, closely followed by the Outer East at 87.2 per cent.
Rounding out the top three areas, the Mornington Peninsula also reported a strong clearance rate of 81.8 per cent, with 11 auctions cleared out of a total 13.
At the same time last year, more than 800 properties were up for auction but delivered a lower clearance rate of 58.5 per cent.
Over the month, Melbourne saw 4,774 new listings hit the market, a 29.3 per cent decrease in new listings compared to 12 months ago.
Brisbane
When considering the data for Brisbane year-on-year, Queensland’s auction results paint a picture of consistency.
For the week ending 28 July 2019, the city notched up a 41.7 per cent clearance rate from 70 total auctions.
At the same time last year, Brisbane returned a 42.5 per cent clearance rate from a larger property pool of 111.
The city saw 2,979 new property listings over the last 28 days, a decrease of 19.8 per cent on the number of new listings this time last year.
Adelaide
South Australia’s capital also looks to be consistent in its clearances year-on-year, despite a lower property volume.
It recorded a 56.7 per cent property clearance rate in comparison to last year’s 57.8 per cent, despite a drop from 76 auctions over the same period in 2018 to 60 in 2019.
The stability also shows in the number of new listings available in the capital, with 1,476 properties having hit the market in the past 28 days, a decrease of just 6.7 per cent on last year’s report.
Perth
Pulling down the success seen across all capital cities, Perth recorded a clearance rate of just 14.3 per cent for the past week from 14 auctions.
At the same time last year, the clearance rate sat at 51.9 per cent from 34 auctions.
Perth saw 2,428 new listings go up for grabs in the past month, a figure which is 17.5 per cent lower than this time last year.
Regional
Geelong posted the strongest preliminary clearance rates over the weekend at 58.3 per cent.
Queensland’s eastern seaboard saw clearance rates sitting around 40 per cent, with the Gold Coast hosting 46 auctions with a 40 per cent clearance rate, while the Sunshine Coast saw 25 auctions that led to a clearance rate of 41.7 per cent.
The Hunter Region was the only other area able to post a quantifiable result, with 26.7 per cent of the week’s auctions finding buyers.