Some green shoots for property?
Around half of all homes up for auction across Australia’s capital cities sold during the first quarter of 2019, with the latest CoreLogic Quarterly Auction Market Review showing a clearance rate of 49.9 per cent across the combined capitals.
This is an increase of +6.6 percentage points on the December quarter results.
While clearance rates for the March quarter are on the up, they pale in comparison to the same quarter last year, when 64.6 per cent of properties across the combined capitals sold at auction.
Auction volumes and clearance rates are mirroring the broader slowdown in property transaction and housing market conditions. Auction clearance rates over the March 2019 quarter were 14.7 percentage points lower than they were over the March 2018 quarter.
Across the combined capitals, 14,647 residential auctions were scheduled in the March 2019 quarter compared to 25,894 in the December 2018 quarter and 20,701 over the March quarter a year ago.
Vendors are less confident of achieving a positive result at auction, and this has further impacted auction volumes during what is traditionally a quiet start to the year.
Here's how the states differed
Sydney posted the largest improvement in auction clearance rates relative to the December quarter last year
The CoreLogic Quarterly Auction Market Review found that quarterly clearance rates increased across all capital cities except for Hobart (-5.2 percentage points) and Canberra (-1.6 percentage points).
Canberra reported the most significant drop year on year, with clearance rates falling by -22.6 percentage points to 45.6 per cent in the March 2019 quarter.
Sydney property vendors achieved the highest quarterly clearance rates with 53.2 per cent of the 5,278 properties for auction selling in the three months to March.
This was +10.1 percentage point increase relative to the December quarter, but -10.4 percentage points lower than 12 months ago.
Melbourne remained Australia’s busiest capital city market over the March quarter, with 6,375 auctions scheduled (51.8 per cent clearance rate), down from 12,372 in the last quarter and 9,488 a year ago.
Tasmania had the fewest auctions scheduled with 45 properties for sale, however it was the only capital city to report an increase in auction volumes over the past quarter.
Capital city auction clearance rate & volumes, March quarter 2019
| Sydney | 53.2 % | (5,278 auctions) |
| Melbourne | 51.8 % | (6,375 auctions) |
| Brisbane | 31.3 % | (1,062 auctions) |
| Adelaide | 48.8 % | (933 auctions) |
| Perth | 31.4 % | (317 auctions) |
| Tasmania | 44.8 % | (45 auctions) |
| Canberra | 45.3 % | (637 auctions) |
| Combined capitals | 49.9 % | (14,647 auctions) |
Sydney - sub regions
| Sub-region | Clearance rate(Mar Qtr ’19) | Total auctions(Mar Qtr ’19) | Clearance rate(Dec Qtr ’18) | Total auctions(Dec Qtr ’18) | Clearance rate(Mar Qtr ’18) | Total auctions(Mar Qtr ’18) |
| Central Coast | 34.8% | 242 | 35.7% | 396 | 56.3% | 279 |
| Baulkham Hills and Hawkesbury | 44.6% | 156 | 31.9% | 272 | 50.2% | 237 |
| Blacktown | 46.1% | 102 | 40.5% | 144 | 40.4% | 132 |
| City and Inner South | 58.2% | 562 | 47.4% | 949 | 71.6% | 816 |
| Eastern Suburbs | 56.6% | 832 | 53.3% | 1,096 | 75.0% | 1,174 |
| Inner South West | 48.0% | 517 | 39.2% | 871 | 60.0% | 786 |
| Inner West | 60.0% | 397 | 46.6% | 685 | 65.5% | 628 |
| North Sydney and Hornsby | 62.0% | 839 | 47.6% | 1,488 | 66.5% | 1,259 |
| Northern Beaches | 53.2% | 537 | 43.6% | 905 | 66.6% | 683 |
| Outer South West | 41.7% | 41 | 27.1% | 77 | 61.5% | 82 |
| Outer West and Blue Mountains | 30.0% | 40 | 22.7% | 101 | 52.8% | 63 |
| Parramatta | 47.8% | 274 | 32.2% | 503 | 55.1% | 437 |
| Ryde | 61.9% | 275 | 41.2% | 534 | 53.4% | 386 |
| South West | 37.7% | 175 | 35.5% | 293 | 50.9% | 302 |
| Sutherland | 43.0% | 254 | 39.9% | 479 | 56.3% | 473 |
Sydney sub-region summary
Sydney auction clearance rates improved across 14 of the 15 Sydney sub-regions over the March quarter with six sub-regions recording a clearance rate above 50 per cent, compared to just one over the December quarter.
Year-on-year however, clearance rates improved in just two sub-regions, Ryde and Blacktown.
North Sydney and Hornsby was host to the highest number of auctions this quarter while also returning the highest clearance rate (62.0 per cent across 839 auctions), while the Outer West and Blue Mountains had the fewest auctions and the lowest clearance rate (30.0 per cent across 40 auctions).
Overall Sydney is tracking lower year-on-year for both auction volumes and clearance rates with the March 2019 quarter recording a success rate of 53.2 per cent across 5,278 auctions, down from 63.6 per cent across 7,755 auctions over the same quarter last year.
Melbourne - sub regions
| Sub-region | Clearance rate(Mar Qtr ’19) | Total auctions(Mar Qtr ’19) | Clearance rate(Dec Qtr ’18) | Total auctions(Dec Qtr ’18) | Clearance rate(Mar Qtr ’18) | Total auctions(Mar Qtr ’18) |
| Inner | 54.5% | 1,288 | 51.1% | 2,291 | 71.6% | 1,743 |
| Inner East | 57.0% | 767 | 44.3% | 1,457 | 60.4% | 1,120 |
| Inner South | 53.9% | 1,039 | 48.8% | 1,892 | 71.0% | 1,249 |
| North East | 49.7% | 651 | 45.7% | 1,543 | 72.9% | 1,075 |
| North West | 50.8% | 616 | 48.8% | 1,096 | 73.5% | 899 |
| Outer East | 52.1% | 421 | 42.1% | 808 | 65.1% | 710 |
| South East | 50.7% | 626 | 41.7% | 1,280 | 62.8% | 835 |
| West | 44.4% | 739 | 38.7% | 1,509 | 66.9% | 1,392 |
| Mornington Peninsula | 44.5% | 213 | 35.2% | 466 | 66.7% | 416 |
Melbourne, sub-region summary
Melbourne auction clearance rates improved across each of the nine Melbourne sub-regions over the March 2019 quarter when compared to the December quarter.
The highest clearance rate was recorded across the Inner East region where 57.0 per cent of the 767 auctions were successful.
The busiest sub-region over the March quarter was the Inner region where 1,288 homes were taken to auction, followed by the Inner South (1,039).
Year-on-year both clearance rates and auction volumes were lower across the subregions.
Overall the Melbourne property market has seen an improvement in the clearance rate with 51.8 per cent of the 6,375 auctions recording a successful result this quarter, up from 45.4 per cent across 12,372 the previous quarter.
Over the March 2018 quarter, both auction volumes and the clearance rate were higher with 9,488 homes taken to auction returning a clearance rate of 68.4 per cent.
