Subdued start to 2019 with 526 capital city homes taken to auction coming out of the seasonal slowdown.
The first week of auction reporting for 2019 saw 526 capital city homes taken to auction, this is down almost 34 per cent on the same week last year when 790 auctions were held.
The preliminary auction clearance rate came in at 47.8 per cent, which is higher than what we were seeing at the end of 2018, when most of December saw clearance rates trend around the low 40 per cent range. 
Comparing results from over the same week last year, the combined capital city preliminary clearance rate came in at 67.7 per cent, before revising down to a 62 per cent final clearance rate.
It’s likely this week’s clearance rates will see the usual downward revision as final results are collected and come in the low-mid 40 per cent range.
It is important to note, volumes are significantly lower than what we were seeing at the end of last year and clearance rates are generally less indicative over periods of such low activity.
As the number of auctions held increases over the next few weeks we will be able to get a firmer perspective on auction conditions for 2019.
Looking at results across the individual capital cities, Sydney returned the strongest clearance rate of 53.7 per cent across 129 auctions.
However it was Melbourne which saw the highest number of homes auctioned, with 156 held, returning a preliminary clearance rate of 44.1 per cent.
Adelaide was the second best performing auction market this week, according to preliminary results.
There were 102 Adelaide homes taken to auction with 52.8 per cent selling.
