Capital city auction activity is set to halve this week, with 1,324 homes currently scheduled to go under the hammer. With long weekends across NSW, ACT and SA (Labour Day), QLD celebrating the King's Birthday, and Victoria taking Friday off for the AFL grand final, this week is set to be the quietest since mid-June (1,033). Last week saw the combined capitals record the second busiest auction week of the year to date, with 2,648 homes auctioned. Compared to the same week last year (1,618), this week's auction activity was up 22.2%, with the AFL grand final and Kings birthday (QLD) last year falling the week prior.

With 223 homes currently scheduled for auction this week, Melbourne is set to host its quietest week since Easter (108). Last week was Melbourne's busiest week since early April (1,202), while 833 homes were auctioned this week last year.

Sydney is expecting its quietest week in seven weeks, with 805 auctions currently scheduled across the city. Tied with the week ending 2nd April (1,017), last week saw Sydney record its busiest auction week of the year to date, with 1,017 homes auctioned, while this time last year, 484 homes went under the hammer.

Across the smaller capitals, both Brisbane (111) and Adelaide (86) are set to see auction numbers halve this week (falling -53.0% and -51.1%, respectively), after last week recording the busiest week of the year to date. Auction activity across Canberra (83) is set to fall -22.4% week-on-week, while Perth is expecting 14 auctions this week, down from 19 the week prior. Two homes are currently scheduled for auction across Tasmania.

Capital city auction activity is set to rebound next week, with approximately 2,550 homes currently scheduled for auction.

Summary of last week’s final clearance rate

The combined capitals hosted the second busiest week of the year to date, with 2,648 homes taken to auction across the capitals last week. Falling just 39 auctions shy of the week ending 2nd April (2,687), last week's auction numbers were 14.4% above the 2,314 auctions held the week prior and 51.0% above the average weekly volumes seen throughout winter (1,753).

After recording the lowest final clearance rate since Easter the previous week (64.4%), the combined capital's clearance rate rose 1.7 percentage points last week to 66.1%. The rise in the clearance rate was driven by a -1.2 percentage point decrease in the withdrawal rate (7.6%) and a milder -50 basis point decline in the portion of properties passed in at auction (26.3%). Several public holidays, including the AFL grand final, the Sovereign's birthday in QLD and WA and the national day of mourning for Her Majesty the Queen, saw just 1,316 homes auctioned this time last year — 60.0% were successful.

By Kaytlin Ezzy, Economist, CoreLogic Australia