Led by a rise in Melbourne, auction activity across the combined capitals is set to more than double this week, with 2,553 homes scheduled to go under the hammer. Multiple public holidays across five of the eight states and territories saw just 1,198 auctions held across the capitals last week – the quietest auction week since Easter. This time last year, falling values and rising interest rates saw just 1,815 homes go under the hammer.

Just shy of 1,000 homes (998) are currently set to go under the hammer in Sydney this week, up 39.8% week-on-week. The previous week saw 714 auctions held across the city, while this time last year, 681 homes were auctioned.

After plummeting to 203 last week, scheduled auction activity across Melbourne is expected to rebound this week, with 1,171 homes set to go under the hammer. Set to be the city's second busiest auction week of the year to date, this week's auction numbers are 57.6% higher than this time last year when weaker selling conditions saw just 743 homes auctioned.

Across the smaller capital cities, week-on-week auction activity is expected to rise across Canberra (54.2%), Adelaide (50.6%) and Brisbane (22.9%). Brisbane is set to host the most auctions across the smaller capitals, with 134 homes scheduled to go under the hammer, followed by Adelaide (125) and Canberra (111). There are 11 homes scheduled for auction across Perth this week, down from 15 the previous week, while only three homes are currently scheduled for auction in Tasmania.

Summary of last week’s final clearance rate

After recording the second busiest week of the year the week prior (2,648), auction activity across the capitals plummeted last week, with just 1,198 homes auctioned across the combined capitals. With Labour Day (NSW, ACT, SA), King's Birthday (QLD) and the AFL grand final (VIC) seeing five of the eight states and territories take a long weekend, last week was the capital's quietest week since mid-June (1,033).

The dip in auction activity was accompanied by a decline in the combined capital's clearance. Falling back to 64.4%, last week’s clearance rate was in line with the clearance rate recorded two weeks prior, tied as the lowest final clearance rate since Easter (61.5%).  The decline was driven by a dip in vendor confidence, with the combined capital's withdrawal rate (11.3%) rising to the highest level since mid-March (11.4%), while the portion of properties passed in at auction fell to 24.3%. The previous week's final clearance rate was 1.7 percentage points higher (66.1%), while this time last year, 59.7% of the 1,618 auctions held were successful.

By Kaytlin Ezzy, Economist, CoreLogic Australia