After holding above the 70% mark for the past two weeks, the combined capital city preliminary auction clearance rate slipped back to 68.8% last week. Despite the slip, last week’s early clearance rate remains slightly above the year-to-date average of 68.0%.
1,835 auctions were held across the combined capitals last week, the highest volume since the week prior to Easter when 3,066 homes went under the hammer.
Melbourne was the only capital city to post a preliminary clearance rate above the 70% mark last week. At 73.8%, last week’s result was the city’s second highest early clearance rate so far this year. 935 auctions were held across Melbourne last week, up from 799 the week prior but -7.3% below the levels recorded a year ago.
Sydney was home to 558 auctions last week, down from 656 the week prior and -23.0% fewer auctions than this time last year. The preliminary clearance rate also slipped lower, coming in at 65.3%. Excluding the more volatile results from January, last week was the lowest preliminary clearance rate for Sydney since the week ending December 15th, 2024 (63.0%).
Brisbane hosted the most auctions across the smaller capitals last week, with 134 homes taken under the hammer, the highest volume since the week prior to Easter (135). After bouncing higher the previous week to 69.7% (revised down to 59.8%), Brisbane’s preliminary clearance rate weakened last week, dropping back to 59.6%.
Historical clearance rates utilise the final auction clearance rate, while the current week is based on the preliminary clearance rate.
132 homes went to auction in Adelaide last week, up from 109 the previous week. The preliminary clearance rate reduced to 64.1%, down from 66.7% the week prior, and tracking below the year-to-date average of 67.4%.
The ACT saw 68 auctions held last week, up from 50 the week prior. 56.6% of auctions have recorded a successful result so far, the lowest preliminary clearance rate in three weeks.
The above results are preliminary, with ‘final’ auction clearance rates published each Thursday. CoreLogic, on average, collects 99% of auction results each week. Clearance rates are calculated across properties that have been taken to auction over the past week.
Four of the six auctions held in Perth last week have been collected so far, three of which were successful, while the one auction result reported so far in Tasmania was unsuccessful.
CoreLogic, on average, collects 99% of auction results each week. Clearance rates are calculated across properties that have been taken to auction over the past week.
It seems that many vendors are holding out for the RBA’s interest rate decision this week. With the cash rate widely expected to reduce tomorrow (May 20th), the volume of scheduled auctions across the combined capitals is set to rise to around 2,360 this week – a 29% jump on last week, before rising further next week, to around 2,700 auctions.
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Meet Caitlin Fono
Sr Associate, Research Support
Caitlin has spent more than a decade working with property data and analytics in various roles, earning a position on the CoreLogic research team in 2013. As a respected and highly experienced research analyst, Caitlin works with high frequency data sets, regularly updating our widely read auction reporting, weekly activity updates and customised data briefs.
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