There are 3,065 capital city properties scheduled to go under the hammer this week, however the release of new policy on Tuesday has quickly changed how the real estate industry will operate, with on-site auctions and open homes now being added to the list of social restrictions. 

The announcement handed down came amidst rising COVID-19 cases as the Government bids to ramp up social distancing measures and restrictions become more widespread. 

This week was expected to be the busiest week for auctions for 2020.

However, given usual auction methods are temporarily banned, agents may be looking to move to online solutions, or accept bids over the phone, with the aim to carry on with a ‘business as usual’ approach in these unprecedented times.

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Source: CoreLogic

There is also likely to be a number of vendors who withdraw their property from the market completely or postpone until circumstances improve. 

After the weekend, CoreLogic said they should have a better idea on how this is going to impact the auction market going forward. 

Across each of the individual auction markets, scheduled volumes are higher week-on-week in Melbourne (9 per cent), Sydney (28.2 per cent), Brisbane (52.2 per cent), Adelaide (44.3 per cent) and Canberra (2.5 per cent), while Perth and Tasmania have fewer scheduled auctions over the week. 

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16 Peters Place, Maroubra will be going to auction through agents Shane Vincent and Clive Carter of Belle Property. Photo: Belle Property

Shane Vincet of Belle Property has a property at 16 Peters Place, Maroubra listed for auction this Saturday but is aware of how fluid the situation is with the new regulations.

"I have 3-4 people interested in the property and I will be calling them this afternoon to see if they are still interested," said Mr Vincent.

"If they are, we will be going to auction.

"Interested buyers can register with me and bid online with AuctionNow or via the telephone."

Last week's results

Last week, auction volumes across the combined capital cities reached their second highest level this year with 2,599 homes taken to market.

The higher volumes combined with uncertainty around COVID-19 saw the final auction clearance rate fall to the lowest level since June last year returning a 56.9 per cent success rate. 

Last week’s final clearance rate was lower than the week prior when 65.3 per cent of the 2,274 auctions held returned a successful result. Melbourne was the busiest city in terms of auction activity with 1,343 homes taken to auction last week, returning a final clearance rate of 58.4 per cent.

Over the previous week, 1,201 auctions were held and the clearance rate was recorded at 65.6 per cent.

This time last year, 814 homes were taken to auction across the city when 55.1 per cent were successful. 

There were 946 homes taken to auction in Sydney last week returning a clearance rate of 58.8 per cent, while over the previous week, 767 homes were taken to auction and a higher clearance rate of 68.1 per cent was recorded.

This time last year 506 auctions were held returning a 52.1 per cent success rate. 

Across the smaller auction markets, Canberra was the best performing auction market last week in terms of the clearance rate with 63.2 per cent of homes auctioned reporting a sold result. 

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