Sydney cools to COVID-era lows while Adelaide gains momentum

1,939 capital city homes went to auction last week, an 11.1% drop from the previous week, but still tracking higher than a year ago (+8.7%) when 1,784 home auctions were held. The preliminary clearance rate rose 1.1 percentage points to 57.5%, still a soft result but with highly mixed outcomes across different cities. This was the fifth time in the past seven weeks that the early clearance rate had held below the 60% mark and the third lowest result for the year-to-date.

Sydney’s preliminary clearance rate fell sharply last week, down 6.0 percentage points to 49.2%, the weakest result since auctions were heavily disrupted during the early COVID period in April 2020. Auction volumes also eased, with 616 homes taken to market, 14.9% fewer than the previous week, though still 11.0% above the same time last year.

The volume of auctions dropped below the 1,000 mark in Melbourne, with 906 homes taken to market, down 14.9% on the week prior but 1.8% higher than a year ago. The preliminary clearance rate showed a 3.7 percentage point rise, reaching 61.4%, but this was still the fifth lowest early result so far this year.

Brisbane hosted 177 auctions, marking an increase of 7.3% from the preceding week and a rise of 32% compared to the same period last year. Last week, just over half of Brisbane auctions were successful (55.7%), up from 53.7% the previous week and the highest early result in four weeks.

147 auctions went to market in Adelaide, a 41% jump on the previous week’s volume. 75.7% of homes had reported a sale in the preliminary data, an 8.5 percentage point rise on the week prior and the strongest preliminary outcome since mid-March.

Perth recorded 25 auctions last week, the highest weekly volume since late last year, but only 38.9% reported a successful result. Tasmania recorded no auctions.

An estimated 2,650 auctions are scheduled for this week, with activity anticipated to rise above 3,000 in the following week.