The national auction market has recorded a strong finish to 2019, with data from CoreLogic indicating an increase in the clearance rate was coupled with higher auction volumes across the capital cities.

The research firm released its Quarterly Auction Update results on Thursday, providing a snapshot of auction activity in the three months to December 2019,,

According to the analysis, the combined capital cities clearance rate came in at 70.3 per cent from 26,923 auctions- a significant jump on the previous quarter where auction volumes were 16,730 and returned a clearance rate of 69.9 per cent.

The figure also represents a sizeable increase from December 2018 quarter, when the clearance rate was 43.6 per cent. 

With the exception of Melbourne and Tasmania, clearance rates across the capital cities outperformed both the previous quarter and the December 2018 quarter.

Melbourne saw the clearance rate improve year-on-year however over the 3 months to December 2019 the clearance rate for the city came in at 72.8 per cent, slightly lower than the previous quarter (73.5 per cent). 

Across the non-capital city markets, clearance rates increased across three of the five regions over the December quarter, with the Geelong region returned the highest clearance rate over the quarter (62.8 per cent), while the Gold Coast was the busiest region with 634 homes taken to auction. 

CoreLogic's head of residential research, Eliza Owen, said vendors had been responsive to higher prices.

 “As prices in Sydney and Melbourne rose 6.2 per cent and 6.1 per cent respectively in the December quarter, a corresponding increase in auction market activity is expected," she said.

 "Auction volumes are up by 4 per cent year on year.” 

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Source: CoreLogic

Sydney sub-region Summary 

The report indicates auction volumes increased across all 15 sub-regions over the December quarter with North Sydney and Hornsby hosting the most auctions (1,450).

In terms of clearance rates, 12 of the 15 sub-regions recorded above 65.0 per cent.

The Inner West region returned the highest clearance rate (80.8 per cent), followed by City and Inner South (80.4 per cent), while the Outer West and Blue Mountains region returned the lowest clearance rate (41.4 per cent). 

Overall, Sydney has experienced a quarterly and annual increase in auction volumes, with the quarterly clearance rate for the city slightly higher than the previous quarter, despite more auctions being held. 

Melbourne sub-region Summary 

Auction activity increased across each of the 9 Melbourne sub-regions over the December 2019 quarter with 8 of the sub-regions hosting a minimum of 1,000 auctions each.

Melbourne’s Inner region had the highest volume of auctions (2,223), followed by the Inner South (1,946).

Despite the higher volumes, clearance rates held above 70 per cent in 7 of the 9 sub-regions.

Melbourne’s Inner East recorded the highest clearance rate over the quarter (76.4 per cent), down from 78.7 per cent over the previous quarter.

All 9 sub-regions saw significantly higher clearance rates when compared to this time last year. 

Overall Melbourne’s clearance rate was recorded at 72.8 per cent across 12,870 auctions over the quarter, compared to 73.5 per cent across 7,426 auctions over the previous quarter and 45.4 per cent across 12,372 auctions over the December 2018 quarter. 

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