With the spring selling season just around the corner, the national property auction market remains pretty strong. This week, the preliminary weighted average clearance rate was 66.7% across the capital cities, compared to 70% this time last year.
Weekly clearance rate, combined capital cities
Although the clearance rate is slightly down on last year, all capital cities have seen higher numbers of properties go to auction. For example, compared to last year, RP Data recorded a 63% rise in the number of homes sold at auction in Sydney.
Capital city auction statistics (preliminary)
Sydney’s preliminary auction clearance rate was the most robust – and precisely the same as last week – at 76.2%. Over recent months, Sydney has been the strongest performing auction market by a significant margin.
Australian Property Monitors (APM) said that the most popular suburbs for auction listings this weekend in Sydney were Croydon Park in the inner west, Eastwood and Beecroft on the upper north shore, Engadine in the south, and Roselands in Canterbury Bankstown.
Dr Andrew Wilson, the senior economist for the Domain Group, said that investor activity is a “significant force” in the Sydney housing market, with nearly $27 billion in housing loans approved to NSW residential investors over the first half of 2014.
This week, Melbourne’s preliminary auction clearance rate was 64.1% – lower than last week’s 73.3% – but its performance remains on trend and it’s expected it will appear even stronger on the eve of spring when the final results are released.
APM said the most popular suburbs for auction listings this weekend in Melbourne were Richmond in the inner city, Glen Iris in the inner east, Reservoir in the north east, and South Yarra and St Kilda – both in the inner city.
Across the combined capital cities, RP Data recorded the median house price at $528,943 after 6,234 sales were made. The median price of units was $478,116 after 2,656 sales.
Capital city private treaty median prices
According to RP Data’s head researcher, Tim Lawless, roughly 19% of all sales across the capital cities (excluding Darwin) are sold under the hammer, or near to the auction date, so with 81% of home sales sold by private treaty, a good way to monitor private treaty conditions includes the “average selling time figures” and “average vendor discounting” data.
This week, the average time on market for Sydney houses was 29 days, with prices around 4.5% less at the contract date. In Melbourne, the average time on market for houses was 44 days, with prices 5.2% less on average on the contract date.
Capital city average time on market and vendor discounting results
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