There are currently 1,629 capital city homes scheduled for auction this week, down -40.7% on last week when 2,749 auctions were held, and -6.6% lower than this time last year (1,745). While four of the eight states and territories have public holidays on Monday, the drop in volume is largely due to the Labour Day long weekend in Victoria.

In Melbourne, just 424 homes are currently scheduled for auction this week, down -69.3% on last week when 1,381 auctions were held, and -14.5% lower than the same week last year (496). This is the quietest auction week the city has seen since late-January (223) and can be attributed to the Labour Day long weekend.

Sydney is expecting to see auction activity fall around -8.1% this week, with 878 homes currently scheduled for auction. Last week saw 955 auctions held, while this time last year, 898 homes went under the hammer across the city.

Across the smaller capitals, Brisbane is expected to be the busiest auction market with 148 homes set to go under the hammer, down -20.0% week-on-week (185), although this may change given the current cyclone warning across the city. Adelaide is expected to see around 111 homes taken to auction, down from 137 last week, while Canberra is set to host 56 auctions this week, down -28.2% on last week when 78 auctions were held. There are 11 auctions scheduled in Perth, in line with the previous week, while there is just one auction scheduled in Tasmania this week, compared to two last week.

Auction volume will pick up again next week, with just under 2,300 homes currently scheduled to go under the hammer across the combined capitals.

Summary of last week’s results

There were 2,749 homes taken to auction across the combined capital cities last week, just two less than the previous week (2,751) making it the second busiest week for auctions since early December (2,881). This time last year, 2,665 auctions were held across the combined capitals.

The combined capital city clearance rate held above the 60% mark for the fourth consecutive week, coming in at 62.6%, down from 64.1% the previous week and 67.5% this time last year.

Across Melbourne, 1,381 homes were taken to auction last week. The previous week saw 1,437 homes taken to auction, while this time last year, 1,352 homes went under the hammer across the city. Melbourne’s clearance rate came in at 62.8% last week, down from 64.5% over the previous week and 65.0% this time last year.

There were 955 homes taken to auction across Sydney last week, compared to 922 over the previous week and 898 this time last year. After holding above 65.0% for three consecutive weeks, Sydney’s final clearance rate dropped to 64.5% last week, down from 65.3% over the previous week. This time last year, 73.5% of homes taken to auction across Sydney were successful.

Brisbane (185) was the busiest auction market across the smaller capitals last week, followed by Adelaide (137), Canberra (78) and Perth (11). Adelaide recorded the highest clearance rate at 66.4%, followed by Canberra (55.1%), Brisbane (53.0%) and Perth (45.5%). There were two auctions in Tasmania last week, one of which was successful.

Related readings 

Capital city auction volumes on the rise - CoreLogic 

National rental market has "well and truly passed the peak" - CoreLogic 

Weaker selling conditions reflected in auction clearance rates - CoreLogic