Preliminary auction clearance rates hold above 70% in the face of higher interest rates and lower volume

This week saw 1,040 capital city homes auctioned, down -42.7% from the 1,815 held last week and -24.6% below the 1,379 held this week last year.

Capital City Auction Statistics (Preliminary)

Of the 825 results collected so far, 72.4% returned a successful result. Despite remaining above the 70% mark, this week's preliminary clearance is the lowest in six weeks, suggesting the June rate hike may have tempered buyer and vendor confidence. Last week's preliminary clearance rate (77.2%), which revised to 73.1% at final figures, was 4.8 percentage points higher, while this time last year, 54.8% of auctions held were successful.

Weekly clearance rate, combined capital cities

Auction numbers across Melbourne more than halved this week, from 736 last week to 315. Following the Combined capitals trend, Melbourne recorded its lowest preliminary clearance rate (73.7%, with 266 results collected) in seven weeks, down -2.1 percentage points from the previous week's preliminary rate of 75.8% (revised to 72.6% at final numbers). Over the same week last year, 450 homes were auctioned across the city, and a final clearance rate of 52.4% was reported.

Sydney was the busiest auction market this week, with 468 homes auctioned across the city. This week's auction numbers were -37.7% below the number held last week (736) and -13.5% less than the 541 auctioned this time last year. In line with the week ending February 13th, 2022 (79.6%), last week's preliminary clearance rate of 79.6% (revised to 74.2%) was the city's highest since mid-October 2021 (80.8%). This week's preliminary rate was -3.7 percentage points lower, with 75.9% returning a successful result. The decline was driven by weaker vendor confidence, with the withdrawal rate rising from 9.9% to 16.1%, while the portion of properties passed in at auction dropped to 8.0%. This time last year, just 54.3% of homes auctioned across the city were successful.

Capital City Auction Statistics (Preliminary)

As one of two states not celebrating a long weekend, Brisbane hosted the busiest auction week among the smaller capitals, with 108 homes auctioned this week. This was followed by Adelaide (85), down -26.7% week on week, and Canberra (52), -35.8% below the number seen last week (81). Adelaide recorded its highest preliminary clearance rate since late April (85.7%), with 83.7% of results collected to date returning a successful result. Brisbane saw its preliminary clearance rate fall -18.1 percentage points this week to 58.8%, and Canberra's preliminary clearance rate (52.3%) dropped -24.6 percentage points week on week. Across Perth, two of the six results collected to date were successful, and no actions were held in Tasmania this week.

With roughly 2,000 auctions currently scheduled, capital city auction activity is set to almost double next week before trending towards the average volumes seen through May. While both vendor and buyer confidence remain relatively buoyant, we could see conditions deteriorate as the expectation of further interest rate rises weighs on consumer and housing market sentiment.

Sub-region auction statistics (preliminary)