Increased volume nationally and another strong Sydney clearance rate have featured in auction results for the beginning of May.
The nation's auction market continues to rebound from its Easter/Anzac Day lull, with the latest CoreLogic results indicating volume has increased across the major markets throughout the past week.
According to the Weekend Market Summary, there were 1,472 homes taken to auction across the combined capital cities in the week ending May 5, returning a preliminary clearance rate of 58.8 per cent.
The previous week had a total of 1,026 auctions return a final clearance rate of 50.4 per cent, while at the same time last year, there were 2,311 auctions and a clearance rate of 62.1 per cent.
CoreLogic market analyst Kevin Brogan told WILLIAMS MEDIA while the bounce back from last month's public holidays was "fairly normal", there were multiple external factors that could impact volumes in the coming weeks.
"We've seen that rebound, but there are a couple of other issues," he said.
"As you come into winter, volumes tend to drop a bit, and there is also the election, which is now only two weeks away.
"I think the week of the election is going to be impacted fairly significantly, in terms of volumes.
"It means there have only been two weekends without public holidays ahead of the election, which has really disrupted the market."
Source: CoreLogic
Sydney
Sydney topped the preliminary clearance rates for the capital cities, with 66.6 per cent across 326 results.
Overall, the city hosted 535 auctions last week, compared with 332 the week before.
Mr Brogan said while it was difficult to read too much into the preliminary clearance rate, it was undoubtedly a strong result for the market.
"I expect (the clearance rate) will revise downward once we get all the results in," he said.
"I think the final clearance rate will be between 55 and 60 per cent, which is probably a little bit better than it has been performing throughout the past few weeks.
"It's encouraging, but when you have a market which has been softening, the results that are most likely to be declared really quickly are the successful ones."
Real Estate Insitute of NSW President Leanne Pilkington said seeing the city preliminary clearance rate go above 60 per cent "was a very positive sign".
Melbourne
In Melbourne, 678 homes were taken to auction this week, increasing from 498 over the previous week.
At the same time last year, there 1,144 homes taken to auction across the city returning a clearance rate of 63.7 per cent.
The preliminary auction clearance rate came in at 60.8 per cent this week, up from 53.6 per cent over the previous week.
Real Estate Institute of Victoria CEO Gil King said the "impressive" clearance rate was led by some strong results in the city's south-east.
“The City of Kingston in the south-east recorded an impressive 95 per cent clearance rate from 21 auctions, led by Cheltenham which sold all four listings last Saturday,” he said.
Brisbane
Brisbane was the only capital city to see a fall in volumes and clearance rates week-on-week.
While there were only nine fewer auctions from the week ending April 28, the preliminary clearance rate fell almost 20 per cent to be at 28.3 per cent from 46 results.
Overall, the city hosted 90 auctions.
Despite this, Apollo Auctions auctioneer Justin Nickerson said the market had retained its "solidarity".
Although registered bidder numbers were slightly down, this was offset by a strong active bidding percentage and pre-auction sales," he said.
"As the election looms large on the horizon, it will be interesting to see if the market can retain its strength in the coming weeks."
By Sean Slatter
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