The preliminary clearance rate across Australia’s capital cities declined to 67.2% last week amid higher auction volumes, marking the lowest early success rate recorded so far this year. 

There were 2,685 homes taken to auction across the combined capital cities, compared to 1,819 auctions over the previous week, which was the ANZAC Day long weekend, and 2,902 the same time last year.   

The preliminary clearance rate reached 67.6% from the previous week and hit 77.7% from the same period last year. 

At the city level, there were 1,285 homes in Melbourne taken to auction last week, up from 689 over the prior week.  

Melbourne’s early clearance rate reached 68.4% from the 1,051 results collected, which was similar to the previous week. 

Source: CoreLogic

In Sydney, there were 907 auctions held last week, up from 715 held over the prior week. 

The Sydney preliminary clearance rate was 62.3% last week, taken from 703 results collected so far.  

The previous week’s early clearance rate in Sydney was 64.5%, revised down to 59.5% at final figures.  

CoreLogic Research Analyst Caitlin Fono said Sydney’s final clearance rate had held below 60% over the past two weeks and was likely to be the case again this week once the remaining results are collected. 

Across the smaller capitals, Adelaide recorded the highest preliminary auction clearance rate at 80.2%, followed by Canberra at 69.5% and Brisbane at 69.3%.  

Brisbane was the busiest auction market last week with 178 homes taken to auction across the city, followed by Adelaide with 156 auctions.  

Canberra hosted 142 auctions last week, while 16 auctions were held in Perth.  

There was just one auction held in Tasmania last week.