Australia’s auction clearance rate falls to a 10-week low
The preliminary auction clearance rate across Australia’s capital cities fell to 50.3%, its lowest in 10 weeks. Last week’s preliminary 54% reading was revised to 49.1% in final data. The grand final weekend sharply reduced Melbourne’s auction volume, while Sydney held more auctions but cleared a smaller share. The figures show continued housing market weakness before Tuesday’s central bank meeting.
Economics & Markets··Evening
Capital-city clearance falls to 50.3%
Cotality's preliminary count put successful auctions at 50.3% of the combined capital-city market, the weakest preliminary clearance in 10 weeks. MacroBusiness and Briefs.co both reported the new reading. The comparison with the previous week needs care: last week's preliminary result had been 54.0%, but the completed count was revised to 49.1%. This week's 50.3% is also provisional, so it should not be set against last week's final figure as though the two were measured at the same stage. A total of 1,428 homes went to auction across the capitals, 22.4% fewer than a week earlier and 17.7% fewer than in the comparable week last year. The lower volume and weaker initial sales rate mark a fresh weekly development after the auction conditions reported on September 20.[1], [2]
Sydney is busier but clears fewer homes
Sydney held 790 auctions, more than any other city in the count; the city's clearance rate fell. That was 39% more than in the previous week but 32% below the same week a year earlier. It was Sydney's busiest auction week since late May, when 977 homes went under the hammer. More listings did not produce a stronger clearance result: Sydney's preliminary rate slipped by 0.63 percentage points to 53.6%, its lowest in eight weeks. The city's increase in volume therefore sits beside a smaller proportion of completed sales. Those are distinct measures of the same week's auction activity, and neither alone describes the number of homes sold. The large Sydney slate also means its direction matters to the combined-capital figure, even as the city followed a different volume pattern from Melbourne over the grand final weekend.[1]
Melbourne's holiday volume contracts sharply
Melbourne held 286 auctions during the grand final weekend, 69% fewer than a week earlier. The count was still 28% above the comparable grand final week last year. Its preliminary clearance fell from 56.3% to 48.8%, a drop of 7.5 percentage points and the city's lowest preliminary rate since the first week of September 2021. Brisbane moved in the other direction, with its preliminary clearance rising 5.1 percentage points to 42.6%; even so, it had remained below 50% in 18 of the preceding 19 weeks. MacroBusiness also reported that dwelling values across the five largest capitals had fallen 1.3% over the past month and were 5.8% below their peak. Those home-value figures measure a different period from the weekend auctions. Markets expect a quarter-point rate rise at Tuesday’s central-bank meeting; that is an expectation, not a decision already taken.[1]
