The higher volumes of homes that went to market in the past week has led to a preliminary clearance rate of 72.8% for the combined capital cities, in comparison with the previous week's final rate of 74%.

Despite an increase in auction activity, CoreLogic warns volumes still remain lower than from the same time last year where 400 more properties went to auction, although half of these failed to sell. 

Across the individual property types, the last five weeks has seen houses consistently outperformed units in terms of clearance rate with 74.9 per cent of houses selling at auction this week, while across the unit market a lower 71.2 per cent preliminary clearance rate was recorded.

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Sydney

Real Estate Institute NSW president Leanne Pilkington said Sydney returned a preliminary clearance rate of 76.6 per cent this week with 647 homes taken to auction. 

“(This is) up on the 585 homes auctioned the week prior when 76 per cent sold,” said Ms Pilkington. 

“Last year, a higher 851 Sydney homes were auctioned returning a 51.1 per cent success rate. 

“Agents and auctioneers are expecting to see increasing numbers throughout the rest of Spring, with the exception of the long weekend, which always experiences lower levels of activity."

Auctioneers such as Damien Cooley and Lachlan MacDonald of Cooley Auctions are seeing heightened activity from the weekend auctions, with properties they have sold surpassing written reserves.

“376 Military Road Vaucluse was a hotly contested auction,” said Mr Cooley. 

“Bidding opened at 1.8m and quickly jumped to 2m. It sold for 2.267m. There were more than 60 bids and it surpassed its written reserve of 2.2m. “

Mr MacDonald sold 9 Caschel Crescent Killarney Heights for 1.560m, 60k above its written reserve after 7 bidders fought it out in a battle for the keys. 

Melbourne

There were 1,022 Melbourne homes taken to auction this week, 77.8 per cent of which returned a successful result, up on the 74.5 per cent final auction clearance last week when volumes were lower (826).  

One year ago, 53.8 per cent of the 1,161 Melbourne homes taken to auction cleared. 

Brisbane

Justin Nickerson of Apollo Auctions said South East Queensland remained steady last week.

"This was highlighted by a handful of high end sales above the 4 million mark, with those auctions returning a surprisingly strong depth of registered bidder numbers," said Mr Nickerson.

"Although the overall number of registrations increased, this was dampened by a lower active bidding percentage - as it slipped below 50% for the first time in a number of months."

Brisbane's overall clearance rate was 52.7 per cent.

Smaller Markets

Canberra was the best performing of the smaller auction markets, with a preliminary auction clearance rate this week of 65.3 per cent. 

Adelaide followed closely with 59.2 per cent of homes selling at auction.

Perth brought up the rear with 50 per cent.

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