The biggest hit from Saturday's AFL grand final may have been to the auction market, with Melbourne's long weekend putting an abrupt halt to the rising volumes seen throughout the first weeks of spring.

According to the latest data from CoreLogic, there were 1,262 homes taken to auction across the combined capital cities for the week ending September 29, in comparison with 1,983 auctions held the previous week.

Despite the lower activity across Australia’s busiest auction market, the combined preliminary clearance rate came in at 74.4 per cent, up from the 70.7 per cent final clearance rate last week.

Over the same week last year, 895 homes were taken to auction returning a much lower clearance rate of 45.8 per cent. 

CoreLogic national auction market commentator Kevin Brogan told WILLIAMS MEDIA the trend in auction volumes was reversed this week, with the NRL Final being partly responsible for very low auction numbers in Sydney. 

"Sydney and Melbourne are anticipated to have 297 and 724 auctions respectively this week," he said.

"Clearance rates seem to have stabilised at a fairly high level, with the combined capital city weighted average remaining above 70 per cent for the last six weeks and there is no reason to suppose that there will be any change.  

"We will all be watching the RBA tomorrow to see if there is any news from that quarter."

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Source: CoreLogic

Melbourne

As expected, grand final week took the city's attention away from house sales, with just 103 homes taken to auction, down from the week prior when 1,020 Melbourne homes were taken to auction.

The lower volumes returned a preliminary auction clearance rate of 82.5 per cent, coming in higher than last week’s final clearance rate of 75.6 per cent and last year’s 57.7 per cent (70 auctions). 

Ray White Victoria's Chief Auctioneer Matthew Condon said that although the AFL Grand Final week had caused an over-all decline in the number of auctions in Victoria this week, the participation was active. 

"We actually see an increase in crowd attendance and inspection numbers and a high average number of active bidders per auction," he said.

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801/23 Shelley Street, Sydney. The property, which is available through Morton, was passed in at auction over the weekend. As seen on The Home Page.

Sydney 

While activity slowed across Melbourne, the Sydney auction market took the show recording the busiest week for auctions since November last year, with 939 homes taken to market.

Demonstrating the depth of market demand, the preliminary auction clearance rate maintained strength across the higher volumes coming in at 77.7 per cent, rising from the 72.7 per cent final clearance rate last week when 646 auctions took place.

Real Estate Institute of NSW President Leanne Pilkington said stronger activity was expected ahead this week's long weekend.

"As we expected, more auctions hit the market this weekend, giving the Sydney market its highest volume since last November," she said.

"We expect to see a lower level of auction properties next weekend as Sydney-siders enjoy a long weekend."

Brisbane and smaller markets

Across the smaller auction markets, auction volumes were lower week-on-week across all cities. The best performing in terms of clearance rates was Adelaide with 62.2 per cent of auctions returning a successful result, Canberra followed with a 58.5 per cent preliminary auction clearance rate. 

In Brisbane, Apollo Auctions had an average attendance of just over 26 people and a clearance rate of 41.7 per cent.

Auctioneer Justin Nickerson said South East Queensland experienced a slight dip but maintained its consistent clearance rate. 

"Of note was a drop in registrations of bidders, although sales prior to auction and one bidder sales were in healthy numbers," he said.

"The volume numbers remained strong, which will now be in effect right throughout the remainder of the year."

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