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Brendan Wong
Sydney and Melbourne have continued to record strong auction clearance rates over the weekend despite a higher number of properties on the market.
In Sydney, Australian Property Monitors (APM) recorded a result of 84.1 per cent, which is the ninth week out of 10 in which clearance rates have exceeded 80 per cent.
RP Data similarly recorded a result of 84.3 per cent, slightly down from last week’s 84.6 per cent.
Senior economist for APM Dr Andrew Wilson said the result was nearly 30 per cent higher than the 57.5 per cent recorded last year, reflecting how much buyer activity and housing market confidence have increased over the year.
“This weekend’s strong result was achieved despite the highest number of properties offered for sale at auction since the Super Saturday pre-Easter weekend of March 23rd,” Dr Wilson said.
“The auction clearance rate recorded on that weekend was 70.5 percent, nearly 15 percent lower than this weekend’s rate.”
Dr Wilson added that while high auction numbers were influenced by sellers avoiding a clash with last weekend’s federal election, the underlying trend in rising lists had been apparent over the last three months.
In Melbourne, the clearance rate was 72.9 per cent, according to APM; RP Data recorded a result of 73.6 per cent.
Dr Wilson said Melbourne’s result was particularly significant as the city had also hosted its highest number of auctions since the Super Saturday weekend and, much like Sydney, sellers had also been influenced by sellers avoiding a clash with the election.
“Melbourne’s weekend auction market has clearly stepped up a gear over the past month as low interest rates and rising confidence energise the early spring market,” Dr Wilson said.
“Clearance rates are now consistently pushing towards the mid-70 percent mark which is nearly 20 percent higher than the mid-50 percent rates recorded a year ago at the same time.
Dr Wilson said while the market continued to produce solid results, it remained short of the strong market conditions experienced four years ago when weekend auction clearance rates were above 80 per cent.
For the combined capital cities, RP Data recorded a clearance result of 74.6 per cent across 2,074 properties.
According to APM, the most expensive property was in Sydney with a value of $3.788 million while the most affordable property was in Brisbane with a value of $140,500.
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