Sydney and Melbourne led a solid auction performance from the capital cities last week, highlighted by increases in both volume and clearance rates.

Preliminary data from CoreLogic for the week ending Sunday, February 16 indicated 1,555 homes were taken to auction across the combined capital cities, returning a preliminary auction clearance rate of 78.6 per cent.

In comparison, 1,167 auctions were held last week, returning a preliminary clearance rate of 69.4 per cent, before revising down to a final clearance rate of 67.7 per cent.

Both Sydney and Melbourne achieved clearance rates of 80 per cent in the latest figures, while also recording volume increases of more than 100 auctions each

Ray White NSW Chief Auctioneer Alex Pattaro said first home buyers appeared to be the flavour of the month.

“Agents and buyers in the market have indicated finance is easy to obtain, increasing the pool of active and qualified buyers," he said.

"With the oversupply of buyers, vendors should be considering getting their property on the market and take full advantage of the buyers within the market. Active and financially approved buyers are at a high and are at similar levels of 2017.”

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Source: CoreLogic

Sydney

There were 578 auctions held in Sydney this week, returning a preliminary clearance rate of 80.3 per cent.

In comparison, there were 447 auctions held over the previous week and the final auction clearance rate was 77.6 per cent.

One year ago, 523 auctions were held and the clearance rate came in at 54.6 per cent. 

Mr Pattaro said the strong attendance figures reflected a "red hot" market. 

"If more stock was to reach the market, there’s no doubt we would continue to see higher clearance rates and inevitably higher prices," he said.

Melbourne 

Melbourne recorded the biggest volume increase of all the capital cities with 717 auctions held last week, in comparison with 419 the previous week.

There is also likely to be an improvement in the final clearance rate, with the preliminary rate coming in at 79.2 per cent, following the previous week's final rate of 68.5 per cent. 

Brisbane and smaller markets 

Across the other markets, Brisbane had the highest volume of auctions with 104 homes going under the hammer, returning a preliminary clearance rate of 61.5 per cent. 

Apollo Auctions had an average attendance of 26 people and an overall clearance rate of 56.2 per cent. 

Chief Auctioneer Justin Nickerson said it was a good indication that the market was moving in a positive direction for the early part of 2020.

"South East Queensland continued its strong run even as volume returned to the market," he said.

"In particular Brisbane auctions within 8km of the CBD were a real feature and the average number of registered bidders reached the highest point it has been for some time."

Of the smaller markets, Canberra recorded the highest clearance rate, with 90.3 per cent from 48 auctions. 

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