The combined capital cities saw 2,506 homes taken to auction this week – the busiest week since mid-June (2,528). While up 3.8% from the previous week (2,414), the number of homes taken to auction this week was -39.7% lower than this time last year (4,153). Of the 1,921 results collected so far, 61.9% were successful. Last week’s preliminary clearance rate was 40 basis points lower (61.5%), revising down to 56.4% at final figures making it the lowest clearance rate since late-August (55.8%). This time last year, 66.3% of reported auctions were successful.

 

Melbourne’s auction volumes held above 1,000 for the third consecutive week with 1,118 homes taken to auction this week, up 10.6% from last week (1,011), and -41.5% lower than the same week last year when 1,912 Melbourne homes were auctioned. Of the 894 results collected so far, 62.4% were successful, up 1.4 percentage points from last week (61.0%). Last week's initial clearance rate revised down to 56.1% at final figures, the lowest final clearance rate the city has recorded since the week ending 24th July (52.0%). This time last year, 65.3% of reported auctions were successful.

 

There were 895 homes taken to auction across Sydney this week, down -3.7% from the 929 auctions held last week. With 701 results collected so far, 64.8% were successful, up 60 basis points from last week’s preliminary clearance rate of 64.2%, which revised down to 58.6% at final figures. This time last year, 1,466 homes were taken to auction across the city, and a clearance rate of 63.8% was reported.

 

Across the smaller capital cities, Adelaide was the busiest auction market this week (178), followed by Brisbane (171) and Canberra (126).  Canberra has recorded the strongest preliminary clearance rate so far (67.0%), followed by Adelaide (62.1%) and Brisbane (42.3%). In Perth, three of the eight results collected so far returned a successful result, while just one of the three auctions held in Tasmania this week were successful.

Note for editors: The above results are preliminary, with ‘final’ auction clearance rates published each Thursday. CoreLogic, on average, collects 99% of auction results each week. Clearance rates are calculated across properties that have been taken to auction over the past week.

Full details, listing updates and top sales of the week can be found in the attached Property Market Indicator.
For more information or to arrange an interview please contact media@corelogic.com.au.

Property Pulse - What happened to the 2022 spring selling season?

Eliza Owen, Head of Research, CoreLogic

Spring time typically draws out buyers and sellers of real estate in Australia, with longer daylight hours, fine weather and lush gardens enhancing the look and feel of properties. For a decade prior to the pandemic, there was an average uplift of 21% in new listings nationally between winter and spring. New listings hitting the market have gone from an average of around 123,000 through winter, to 146,000 through spring.

2022 is different. Spring came and went without the usual surge in listings. Instead of new listing campaigns rising from winter to spring, freshly listed properties fell nationally for the first time in at least 12 years. New listings added to the market in the three months to November totalled 118,734, down from 121,859 in the three months to August. 

What made 2022 such a lacklustre spring selling season?

Property values have declined. Vendors may have chosen not to list their property in the past few months because prices have deteriorated from a peak in April. Amid the fastest rate-tightening cycle since the 1990s, home values declined -7% from April through to the end of November. This is the steepest decline in home values on record, and represents an equivalent fall of around $53,000 in the national median home value.

Selling conditions have changed in favour of buyers. In the three months to November 2021, the median amount of time a listing was on the market before selling was a mere 20 days. This has increased 35 days in the same period of 2022. Similarly, vendor discounts from the initial listing price have also deepened, from -2.9% in the three months to 2021, to -4.3% in the spring of 2022.

So long as mortgage holders can afford their repayments, and do not need to move, sellers may be less and less motivated to put their property on the market at the moment. This is reflected in previous research from CoreLogic, which shows a positive correlation between capital growth and new listings volumes.

Read Head of Research Eliza Owen’s full analysis on spring in the attached PDF.