Auction clearance rates have trended higher across the June quarter, according to CoreLogic.
Auction clearance rates have experienced their best quarterly result in 12 months, according to new data from CoreLogic.
The research firm's Quarterly Market Summary indicates there have been increased rates across Melbourne, while Sydney's clearance rate has outperformed both the previous quarter and the June 2018 quarter.
Over the 3 months to June 2019, the clearance rate across the combined capital cities came in at 55.5 per cent across 18,104 auctions, the strongest quarterly clearance rate since the June quarter last year.
By comparison, the previous quarter saw fewer auctions and a lower clearance rate (49.9 per cent across 14,647 auctions), although the March quarter is traditionally quieter due to the seasonal slowdown in January.
Across the non-capital city markets, clearance rates increased across all five regions tracked over the June quarter with Geelong leading the charge for regional auction markets, returning the highest clearance rate over the quarter (56.4 per cent), while the Gold Coast was the busiest of the regions with 571 homes taken to auction.
Source: CoreLogic
CoreLogic analyst Cameron Kusher said the improved trend in auction market results provided further evidence that housing conditions are stabilising, especially in Sydney and Melbourne.
"Auction results are highly correlated with housing market conditions in Sydney and Melbourne, while other capital cities generally show a much smaller proportion of properties are taken to auction," he said.
The data comes as a preliminary capital city clearance rate of 69 per cent for the week ending July 14.
Volumes were slightly down on the previous week, with 854 auctions held across the capital cities, in comparison with 953 from the seven days prior.
The final clearance rate for the week ending July 7 was 64 per cent - the highest since April 2018.
Sydney
Sydney recorded a preliminary clearance rate of 77.2 per cent across 318 auctions, in comparison with 71.3 per cent from 359 auctions the week before.
Ray White NSW Chief Auctioneer Alex Pattaro said a lack of stock remained the biggest issue in the current market.
“Our stock is selling under the hammer or just prior," he said.
"Our vendors who have committed to a mid-winter auction campaign have been richly rewarded as there’s plenty of buyers looking to transact.
"Auction attendance continues to blossom reaching a NSW high of 45 attendees per auction which is higher than our national average at 40.
Melbourne
In Melbourne, 352 auctions were held across the city returning a preliminary clearance rate of 73.6 per cent.
The city's final clearance rate has held above 65 per cent for the last 3 weeks and it’s looking like this week will return a similar result.
Over the same week last year, a clearance rate of 56.2 per cent was recorded across 559 auctions.
Of the 254 auctions reported to the REIV, 193 sold and 61 were passed in, 28 of those on a vendor bid.
REIV CEO Gil King said Inner Melbourne and regional Victoria both recorded strong results.
"Inner Melbourne was the winner last week with 85 per cent of 80 auctions sold under the hammer," he said.
“Armadale led with 100 per cent from five listings, followed by Clayton and Newport with four auctions in each – both also cleared all their listings.
“Regional Victoria also recorded an impressive 88 per cent clearance rate from 16 auctions held over the week.”
Smaller markets
Brisbane saw higher volumes week-on-week while all other cities saw fewer homes taken to auction.
Apollo Auctions recorded an average attendance of 19 people and 1.8 registered bidders.
Auctioneer Justin Nickerson said it was another strong week for South East Queensland.
"Whilst registrations were quieter, again the market was buoyed by one bidder sales, and sales prior to auction," he said.
"The colder weather didn’t deter the crowds either as the average attendance continued to be strong."
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