Fewer capital city homes taken to auction week-on-week and year-on-year.
There were 2,204 capital city homes taken to auction this week, returning a preliminary weighted average clearance rate of 55.0 per cent. 
This week’s volumes are slightly lower than last week’s 2,293 auctions held, which was the busiest week so far this year.
The higher volumes last week saw the clearance rate dip below 50 per cent and it’s likely, as volumes increase, we will see clearance rates trend below this mark.
Comparing results to one year ago, volumes are significantly lower than the 3,026 homes taken to auction over the same week in 2018.
Given the combined capital cities posted another month on month decline in home values in February, its expected vendors will remain reluctant to auction their property while selling conditions remain challenging and year on year volumes will continue to trend lower throughout the year.
In Melbourne, Australia’s largest auction market, a preliminary auction clearance rate of 54.9 per cent was recorded across 1,046 auctions this week, up from the 50.6 per cent final clearance rate last week when volumes were higher (1,128).
There were 799 auctions held in Sydney this week returning a preliminary auction clearance rate of 61.3 per cent, increasing from the 50.1 per cent final clearance rate last week when 801 Sydney homes were taken to auction.
Across the smaller auction markets, preliminary results show that Adelaide was the best performing in terms of clearance rate with a 47.9 per cent success rate.
Brisbane was the worst performing auction market this week, with only 32.9 per cent of homes selling at auction.
