The Queen’s memorial public holiday and the AFL Grand Final in Melbourne, saw auction volumes plummet this week, with just 1,323 homes auctioned across the combined capitals. Lead by a -86.9% decline in Melbourne’s auction activity, the number of auctions held across the combined capitals this week was down -39.9% from the 2,203 auctions held last week, and were -18.6% below the auction volumes recorded this time last year (1,626). Preliminary clearance rates across the combined capitals held above the 60% mark for the fourth consecutive week, with 60.6% of the 1,028 results collected so far recording a successful result. Last week’s preliminary clearance rate (62.5%) was revised to a final clearance rate of 60.1%, the highest since mid-May (61.3%). This time last year 80.6% of capital city auctions recorded a successful result.

Sydney hosted the busiest auction market this week, with 808 homes auctioned across the city. Up 4.7% from the 772 auctions held the previous week, this week marked Sydney’s busiest auction week since late July, when 890 homes were auctioned. Following the trend set by the combined capitals, Sydney’s preliminary clearance rate (60.6%) held above the 60% mark for the fourth consecutive week, with 672 results collected so far. This week’s preliminary clearance rate was up 40 basis points from the previous week’s preliminary rate of 60.2%, which was later revised to 57.1% at final figures. Despite the small uptick in the clearance rate, Sydney’s withdrawal rate rose 1.7 percentage points, with 22.6% of homes withdrawn from auction. This time last year, 81.7% of the 829 homes auctioned across the city were successful.

In Melbourne, 132 auctions were held this week, the quietest auction week since mid-January (44). This week’s lower auction activity can largely be attributed to the Queen’s memorial public holiday and the AFL Grand Final held this weekend. The previous week saw 1,008 homes auctioned across the city, while this time last year 352 auctions were held. With 106 results collected so far, Melbourne’s preliminary clearance rate rose 1.7 percentage points to 66.0% (its highest preliminary rate since early May). Last week’s preliminary clearance rate (64.4%) was revised to a final clearance rate of 62.4%, while this time last year 75.7% of auctions were successful.

Across the smaller capitals, auction activity fell -9.5% this week, with auction volumes falling in Brisbane (-18.1%), Adelaide (-9.4%) and Perth (-60.0%) but rising across Canberra (13.6%). Brisbane hosted the busiest auction week amongst the smaller capitals, with 140 auctions held across the city, followed by Canberra (117) and Adelaide (116). Adelaide recorded the highest preliminary clearance rate, with 70.3% of auctions returning a successful result, while Canberra and Brisbane recorded preliminary clearance rates of 57.0% and 52.6% respectively. In Perth, result for three of the eight auctions held have been collected so far, one was successful, while one of the two auctions held in Tasmania this week recorded a successful result.