With footy finals clearly captivating the nation, auction activity across the combined capitals was down by more than half over the long weekend.

However, capital city auction activity is expected to rebound this week, with approximately 2,600 homes currently scheduled for auction.

Based on CoreLogic data, the combined capitals hosted the quietest auction week since mid-June (1,033), with just 1,215 capital city homes auctioned last week.

Auction activity over the long weekend fell by 54.1% compared to the week prior (2,648) when the capitals hosted the busiest week since before Easter (2,687).

By comparison, this week last year resulted in 1,618 homes being auctioned, with the public holidays for the AFL grand final and King’s birthday (QLD) falling a week earlier.

Overall, 70.3% of auction results collected were successful, compared with the previous week’s preliminary clearance rate of 72.0%, which following final figures fell to 66.1%. By comparison, this time last year, 59.7% of reported auctions were successful.

Sydney and Melbourne

Sydney was the busiest auction market, with 730 homes auctioned last week, down -28.2% from the 1,017 held the week prior, when the city hosted its busiest auction week of the year to date (tied with the week ending 2nd April).

Driven by a 4.7 percentage point rise in the withdrawal rate (14.6%), CoreLogic data recorded a fall in Sydney’s preliminary clearance rate to its lowest point in eight weeks at 71.7%.

With 594 results collected so far, last week’s preliminary clearance rate was -2.7 percentage points lower than the previous week’s preliminary result (74.4%), which revised to 70.0% at final numbers. This time last year, 484 homes were taken to auction across the harbour city and a clearance rate of 56.2% was reported.

Heading south, 203 auctions were held across Melbourne, down from 1,092 over the previous week and 833 this time last year. Falling well below the 70% mark, Melbourne recorded the lowest preliminary clearance rate since mid-April (57.6%), with 66.0% of the 159 results collected so far returning a successful result.

At 70.5%, the previous week’s preliminary clearance rate was 4.5 percentage points higher, while this time last year, a final clearance rate of 62.1% was recorded.

Auction activity across the smaller capital cities last week included:

  • Brisbane 110.
  • Adelaide 83.
  • Canberra 74.

However, Adelaide recorded the strongest preliminary clearance rate among the smaller capitals, with 79.3% returning a positive result, followed by Brisbane (70.7%) and Canberra (62.5%).

In Perth, three of the six auctions collected so far have returned a successful result, while results for the two auctions held in Tasmania last week are yet to be collected.