There are 1,660 auctions across the combined capitals scheduled to go under the hammer this week with grand finals and public holidays continuing to disrupt volumes. This week’s capital city auction volumes are -16.4% lower than this time last year (1,986) and -24.6% below the 2,203 auctions held two weeks prior (week ending 18th September). This week’s lower auction activity is likely due to the Labour day long weekend in ACT, NSW and South Australia and the Queen’s Birthday long weekend across Queensland. Last week’s Queen’s memorial public holiday and AFL Grand final in Melbourne resulted in weaker total volumes with 1,316 auctions held across the capitals – the quietest auction week since Easter.

After rising above the 1,000 mark over the week ending 18th September, before plummeting to 130 last week, scheduled auction activity across Melbourne is back to normal with 828 homes set to go under the hammer. Outside of Perth, Melbourne is the only capital city to record a rise in auction volumes both week on week (536.9%) and compared to this time last year (2.9%) when 805 auctions were held (under lockdown conditions).

Across Sydney, a combination of the Labour day long weekend and the NRL grand final has the scheduled volume of auctions down -35.2% this week, with 523 auctions scheduled across the city. The previous week saw 807 homes auctioned across Sydney, while this time last year 753 homes were auctioned.

Across the smaller capital cities, week-on-week auction activity is expected to decline across Canberra (-47.0%), Brisbane (-12.2%) and Adelaide (-8.7%). Brisbane has 122 homes scheduled for auction, Adelaide has 105 and Canberra, 61. There are 19 homes scheduled for auction across Perth, up from eight the previous week, while auction activity across Tasmania is expected to hold steady with two auctions scheduled to occur this week.

Summary of final results - week ending 25 September 2022

The combined capital cities clearance rate held around 60% for the second consecutive week with 60.0% of auctions reporting a successful result. The previous week recorded a final clearance rate of 60.1% while this time last year, 80.6% of auction held across the capitals were successful.

Sydney’s clearance rate of 61.3% was its highest since the week before Easter (10th April) when 61.7% of auctions were successful. The higher clearance rate also meant Sydney’s withdrawal rate fell, from 20.9% the previous week to 18.3% last week.