For the sixth consecutive week, the nation’s combined capitals have registered a preliminary clearance rate of below 60 per cent.
A 2.4 per cent increase in auction activity, which saw 1,667 homes go under the hammer nationwide, was not enough to stop this slide. So far, the combined capitals are reporting a preliminary clearance rate of 56.4 per cent from 1,285 results. This represents a 2.2 per cent drop in preliminary clearance rate from the previous week.
Melbourne retained its place as the busiest capital city this past week, with the Victorian capital hosting 656 auctions. With 538 results collected so far, the city is reporting a preliminary clearance rate of 55.4 per cent — a 3.8 per cent decline from the week prior.
The city’s north-east was its strongest-performing subregion, registering a 71.1 per cent preliminary clearance rate from 85 total auctions, while Melbourne’s west was its weakest, with just 43.4 per cent of the 89 auctions returning a positive result.
In Sydney, there were 639 auctions throughout the week, a 5.6 per cent rise on the previous week. So far, there have been 506 results reported, with 56.9 per cent reporting a positive outcome, while a further 25.9 per cent were withdrawn from auction.
The inner south-west, with a 68.3 per cent preliminary clearance rate from 79 auctions, was the harbour city’s top-performing subregion. Meanwhile, Parramatta, with 44.2 per cent of the 58 auctions ending positively, had the poorest results.
Throughout the smaller capital cities, 69.7 per cent of Adelaide’s auctions registered a successful result, a 1.1 per cent rise on the previous week. Similarly, Brisbane, the busiest of them all with 155 auctions, saw a 1.2 per cent increase in preliminary clearance rate to 44.8 per cent.
A slight 4.1 per cent drop in preliminary clearance rates saw 64.5 per cent of the 84 auctions held in the national capital, Canberra, find buyers under the hammer.
It was a different story in Perth, which netted just one successful result from the nine auctions collected so far.
No auctions were held in Tasmania.