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Australian capital cities have seen a rise in the number of homes taken to auction, but a drop in clearance rates.
A new CoreLogic report looking at the three months to December 2018 shows clearance rates dropped to just 43.6%, down from 53.6% in the previous quarter and from 62.3% over the same period the previous year.
The lowest weekly clearance rate for the quarter was recorded over the week ending 16 December, with 40% across 2,406 auctions.
The highest clearance rate was recorded over the week ending 7 October, with 49.5% across 1,817 auctions.
Individual capital cities saw a decline in clearance rates everywhere except Tasmania, which remained unchanged at 50%, but only had 40 auctions.
The largest fall in clearance rates was seen across Canberra, with a drop of 13.4% from the previous quarter, followed by Adelaide with a drop of 12.2%. Perth saw a 11.9% decrease, leaving it with a very below average 25%, and Melbourne saw a 11.2% decrease.
Auction activity increased over the December quarter, with 25,894 homes taken to auction across the combined capital cities. This is an increase from 20,653 auctions in the September quarter, but much lower than the same period last year when 32,408 homes were taken to auction.
In non-capital city markets, auction volumes increased across all five regions over the December quarter when compared to the previous quarter, but clearance rates still fell over the period.
The largest fall in clearance rates was seen across the Hunter region, down 18.8% over the quarter.
Other areas to see drops were Geelong with -17.3%, Wollongong with -10.2%, Gold Coast with -5.9% and the Sunshine Coast with -3.1%.
