Australia’s auction market has taken another hit, with the national combined capital city clearance rate falling to almost 70% last week.
Figures from
CoreLogic RP Data put the preliminary clearance rate for last week at 70.7%, down from last week’s final result of 72.1%.
For Sydney it was another disappointing week, with the harbour city’s preliminary rate currently sitting at 73.2%, only slightly up on the previous week’s 73.1% which is the lowest result for the year.
The last two weeks of results are a stark contrast to earlier this year when Sydney had a 22 week run of clearance rates above 80%.
Domain Group senior economist Dr Andrew Wilson said Sydney’s September’s results so far have been the lowest in a number of years, a possible sign the city’s boom is over.
“September has seen the lowest spring clearance rates in three years and it's no spike, it's consistent. We may be looking at a clearance rate below 70% before year's end. That could even happen at next weekend's Super Saturday,” Dr Wilson told the Australian Financial Review.
One year ago, Sydney’s auction clearance rate was 78%.
The North Sydney and Hornsby sub-region had the highest volume of auctions last week, with 183 held and a preliminary clearance rate of 76.8%.
Melbourne also looks to have had a disappointing week, with its preliminary clearance rate sitting at 73.3%, down from the previous week’s 74.4%.
The result is higher than the same week last year, when a clearance rate of 72.1% was recorded.
Melbourne’s strongest performing sub-region was the Outer East, where 78.4% of the 74 reported auctions were sold.
On the other end of the scale was the Mornington Peninsula, where a low of 60.6% of the 33 reported auctions cleared.
Adelaide’s preliminary clearance rate was 71.4% last week, up from 62.4% the previous week and 68.4% last year
Preliminary results show that 57.0% of reported results in Canberra were successful this week, down from 65.2% last week and 58.2% one year ago, but the nation’s capital did have a busy week with 116 auctions held.
30 Perth auctions were held this week with a preliminary clearance rate of 37.5%, while across Brisbane, 108 auctions results have been reported this week, with 52.8% successful.
In Tasmania, one successful sale has so far been reported.
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