The first big Saturday of the spring auction season is looming, with more than 1000 Sydney homes going under the hammer this weekend.

Last Saturday saw a clearance rate of 71.3 percent, the lowest result recorded this year and the lowest spring clearance rate for three years, according to Domain. Out of 598 reported auctions, 460 properties sold. The clearance rate was 83.9 percent for the same weekend last year.

Clearance rates in Sydney have been falling since July, and were peaking at around 90 percent in May.

In Melbourne, last weekend's auction clearance rate was 74.5 percent, the lowest since February.