Auction recap – here’s how our auction markets finished 2020

The December quarter saw the combined capital city clearance rate continue to strengthen, while auction volumes increased by 44 per cent over the same period.

The combined capital city clearance rate was recorded at 69.4 per cent over the December quarter, making it the best performing quarter of 2020.

The March 2020 quarter recorded a clearance rate of 62.5 per cent, followed by 47.9 per cent in Q2, and 59.2 per cent in Q3.

Auction volumes increased by 44.1 per cent over the three months to December with 20,489 homes taken to auction across the combined capital cities, up from 14,216 over the September quarter. 65.2% of the uplift can be attributed to the resurgence of auctions scheduled across Melbourne.

Stage 3 and 4 COVID-19 restrictions created subdued consumer sentiment, and led to limited transaction activity across the city over the September quarter, creating pent-up demand from vendors looking to sell toward the end of 2020.

While the three months to December was the busiest quarter of 2020, it was significantly lower than the December 2019 quarter, when 26,923 homes were taken to auction across the combined capitals.

Of the 20,411 auction results collected over the latest quarter, just 8.9 per cent reported a withdrawn result, compared to 18.7 per cent over the September quarter and 31.0 per cent over the June quarter.

Of the sold results, 36.8 per cent were sold prior to auction, compared to 42.0 per cent over the September quarter and 47.8 per cent over the June quarter.

Auction Market Review Highlights

Quarterly summary, capital cities

Weekly clearance rate and volume of auctions, combined capital cities

Quarterly summary, regional

Capital city sub-regions (Sydney)

Sydney sub-region summary

Looking at Sydney’s sub-regions, all but one (Outer South West) have seen clearance rates increase over the quarter, with 9 of the 15 sub-regions recording a clearance rate above 70.0 per cent, compared to just 2 sub-regions over the September quarter.

The highest clearance rate was recorded across the Northern Beaches (81.0 per cent), followed by the South West (76.6 per cent).

The busiest sub-regions for auctions over the quarter were North Sydney and Hornsby (1,529), Eastern Suburbs (1,140) and Inner South West (1,095).

Overall, Sydney’s auction clearance rate over the December quarter was recorded at 71.5 per cent, up from 63.1 per cent over the previous quarter, although lower than the December 2019 quarter (74.9 per cent).

Sydney was host to 9,461 auctions over the quarter, compared to 8,147 over the previous quarter and 9,546 over the December 2019 quarter.

Capital city sub-regions (Melbourne)

Melbourne sub-region summary

Unsurprisingly, performance across Melbourne’s sub-regions over the December quarter was stronger than over the previous three month period, with all 9 sub-regions showing an increase in both auction volumes and clearance rates.

Melbourne’s Inner region was host to the greatest number of auctions, with 1,844 auctions held over the December quarter, up from 688 over the September quarter.

This was followed by the Inner South, where 1,126 auctions were held over the three months to December, increasing from 473 over the previous quarter.

Overall, Melbourne’s clearance rate was recorded at 68.5 per cent over the December quarter, up from 51.0 per cent over the previous quarter, although down from 72.8 over the December 2019 quarter. In terms of auction volumes, there were 7,415 homes taken to auction across the city over the 3 months to December, up from 3,320 over the September quarter.

The December 2019 quarter saw 12,870 home taken to auction across the city.

About Eliza Owen Eliza is head Of Residential Research Australia for Corelogic and a respected property market commentator. Eliza holds a first class honours degree in economics from the University of Sydney