Australia's property market is showing fresh signs of cooling, with auction clearance rates softening and open home attendance falling to its lowest level since tracking began, as rate rises, weak consumer sentiment, and post-budget uncertainty weigh on buyer demand.
Cotality's preliminary auction clearance rate slipped to 50% this week, down from 54.8% the week prior, though still an improvement on the sub-50% readings recorded from late June into early July.
Tim Lawless (pictured left), Cotality's head of research for Asia Pacific, noted the preliminary uplift partly reflects a lower withdrawal rate of 20%, well down from around a quarter of auctions being pulled from the market at the recent low point, since withdrawn auctions count as negative outcomes in the clearance rate calculation.
Auction volumes remain subdued more broadly. Some 1,365 auctions were held this week, up 4.7% on the previous week but 12.6% lower than the same time last year, marking the ninth straight week of annual declines after volumes had run ahead of last year through most of the first half of 2026.
Results were mixed across capital cities: Melbourne posted the strongest early clearance rate in five weeks at 56.5%, while Sydney's rate fell sharply to 47.4% and Canberra recorded its lowest reading since March 2019 at 27.8%.
The auction data lines up with a broader pullback in buyer engagement.
Ray White Group chief economist Nerida Conisbee (pictured right) reports that average open home attendance fell to 2.1 people per inspection over the four weeks to 11 July, down from 3.6 a year earlier — the lowest result since the series began in January 2024, drawn from around 13,000 open homes tracked weekly.
Conisbee points to a combination of factors behind the slide, including borrowing costs, weak sentiment, and budget-related changes for investors. Attendance had fallen from 10% above year-ago levels in January to 2.6 by early May, before easing further after the Budget landed on 12 May.
She notes there was no sharp drop immediately after budget night, saying "the slowdown was already well underway before the budget," and that the decline more likely reflects the cumulative impact of higher borrowing costs, weak confidence and broader uncertainty than any single event.
The fall has been broad-based, with Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane all now averaging around two people per open home. Brisbane recorded the steepest annual fall, down 59%, while Perth and Adelaide remained comparatively busier at close to three attendees per inspection.
Conisbee cautions that thinner crowds do not automatically mean falling prices, saying "a property only needs one buyer, and well-priced homes can still attract strong competition."
She adds this points to "a less frantic market, with buyers under less pressure to act quickly," with early signs suggesting the pace of decline may be stabilising heading into spring.
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