This weekend’s auction clearance results Saturday July 24th – Lockdowns begin to impact results

Auction clearance rates remained surprisingly strong this weekend despite the fact that over 13 million Australians are in lockdown.

But the strain is starting to show with only 566 properties being taken to auction in Sydney this weekend and fewer properties will be going to auction moving forward as lockdowns and inspection limitations persist.

Dr Andrew Wilson of My Housing Market was tracking 1,944 auctions in the major capitals this weekend, which was understandably less than last weekend’s 2,178 properties auctioned.

Despite the challenges all our capital cities delivered solid auction clearance rates with Canberra being the stand-out performer with a preliminary auction clearance rate of 87.3% from the 69 auctions conducted.

Other preliminary clearance rates (as reported by Dr. Andrew Wilson’s Auction Insider) were:-

• Sydney – 75.1%
• Melbourne – 73.
• Brisbane – 76.8%
• Adelaide – 74.5%

Remember withdrawn auctions and, not surprisingly there were 97 auction withdrawals in Sydney and 185 withdrawals in Melbourne this weekend, are recorded as not sold and therefore bring down auction clearance rates.

Today’s combined capital city preliminary auction clearance rate was recorded at 69.5% across 1,181 auction results reported so far.

Sydney:

Sydney has been in lockdown 4 weeks now yet auction clearance rates are still in the mid 70%’s showing the significant buyer depth.

Clearly online auctions are now an accepted selling method in Sydney, but auction clearance rates are likely to drop further if lockdown conditions are tightened and property inspections are limited.

The Harbour City was host to only 566 auctions this weekend and the preliminary auction clearance rate was a solid 75.1%, but will be revised lower to around the low 70%’s as the remaining auction results are collected.

Last week, a final clearance rate for Sydney as reported by Domain was 73.8%.

Not surprisingly 97 properties that were planned to be auctioned this weekend were withdrawn from sale.

Realestate.com.au reported that there were also 1,454 private sales in New South Wales over the last week, much the same as the 1,554 private sales the week before, a great result considering Sydney’s lockdown.

The following chart from Dr. Andrew Wilson of My Housing markets shows the Sydney auction clearance trend:

Dr. Andrew Wilson commented:

Sydney auction numbers well down and clearance rates lower as restrictions bite.

Auction numbers were sharply down in Sydney at the weekend with lengthening Covid lockdown now impacting market activity.

566 homes will reported as auctioned on Saturday, which was well below the 872 July record said last weekend and similar to the 546 listed over the same weekend last year.

This weekend’s auction numbers were also the lowest number reported on a non-holiday weekend since February 13th.

High lockdown related withdrawals continue to influence the clearance rate with 24% of reported auctions withdrawn –higher than the 21% reported the previous weekend.

Melbourne:

In Melbourne 1120 properties were scheduled for auction this week – even more than the 1061 auctions conducted last weekend.

Of course these were planned before the sudden lockdown, and prospective purchases had a chance to inspect these properties prior to the lockdown.

The preliminary auction clearance rate for Melbourne was a solid 73.0% but will be revised lower to the high 60%’s once the remaining auction results are collected.

Last week a final clearance rate for Melbourne as reported by Domain was 66.8%.

187 properties were withdrawn from sale this weekend and these are counted as “passed in” meaning this will bring down the auction clearance rate.

Realestate.com.au reported that there were also 1,247 private sales in Victoria in the last week; much the same as the previous week’s 1,256 – a surprising result due to the limitation of inspections due to lockdown

The following chart from Dr. Andrew Wilson of My Housing markets shows the long term trend of Melbourne’s auction clearance rate:

Dr. Andrew Wilson commented:

Melbourne’s weekend auction market held the line on Saturday producing more strong results for sellers generally, despite another record day of July auctions and the restrictions of Covid lockdown.

Melbourne reported a robust 73% clearance rate which was similar to the previous weekend 73.2%.

The clearance rate was again impacted by high numbers of lockdown related withdrawals with 30.6% of listed auctions reported withdrawn.

Yet another July record  -1120 homes were listed to go into the hammer on Saturday which was well ahead of last weekend’s previous record of 1061.

Here are the preliminary auction clearance rates as reported by Dr. Andrew WIlson

As always these will be lower by mid week when the auction results that are not yet reported are taken into account.

Despite around 13 million Australians being locked down, the national number of auctions held over the weekend remains high for July, although lower than the previous weekend’s number.

If lockdown and difficulty inspecting properties persist we can expect a number of properties going to auction to be lower moving forward.

The following charts from NAB and Corelogic also shows the long-term auction clearance rate trend for our combined capital cities.