Auction clearance rates across Australia’s capital cities improved last week, according to new data from CoreLogic.

Preliminary figures showed that of the 1,656 auctions conducted across the country, 68.4% were successful, up 3.4 percentage points from the previous week’s preliminary clearance rate.

This marked the second busiest auction week of the year so far, with volumes increasing by 74.5% to 2,234, although this was still 28.1% lower than the same time last year.

Melbourne was the busiest auction market, with volumes rising above 1,000 for only the second time in 2023.

Last week saw just 360 homes taken to auction, while 1,525 auctions were held in the city the same time last year.

Source: CoreLogic

Of the 843 results collected so far, 68.7% were successful, up 5.8 percentage points from the previous week’s preliminary clearance rate.

In Sydney, there were 788 homes taken to auction, compared to 659 the previous week and 1,029 the same time last year.

Preliminary results showed 73.5% of the 589 results collected so far were successful, up 4.2 percentage points on last week’s preliminary clearance rate.

Brisbane held the most auctions of the smaller capital cities with 139, 55.7% of which were successful.

Adelaide was the most successful of the smaller capitals, returning a preliminary clearance rate of 63.3%.

Canberra’s preliminary clearance rate was 57.5%.

In Perth, nine of the 13 results had been collected so far, two of which were successful, while Tasmania held four auctions this week, all of which were successful.

Auction volumes were set to increase again next week, with just under 2,400 homes currently scheduled for auction across the combined capital cities.

Around 1,150 of those auctions were set to take place in Melbourne.

CoreLogic Research Analyst Caitlin Fono said these figures indicated a rebound in the auction market, after a slower period of activity in recent weeks due to public holiday long weekends.

The strong clearance rates suggested that buyer confidence remained high, despite ongoing uncertainty around COVID-19 and the wider economic landscape.