Combined capital cities see an increase in auction activity, but a drop in clearance rates

PHOTO: Activity actually increased over the December quarter with 25,894 homes taken to auction across the combined capital cities (up from 20,653 over the September quarter)

A newly released report focusing on Australia’s property auction market performance found that combined capital city clearance rates dropped to just 43.6 per cent in the 3 months to December 2018, down from 53.6 per cent over the previous quarter and 62.3 per cent over the same period a year prior.

The lowest weekly clearance rate for the quarter was recorded over the week ending 16 December (40 per cent across 2,406 auctions), while the highest clearance rate was recorded over the week ending 7 October (49.5 per cent across 1,817 auctions).
Individual capital cities saw a decline in clearance rates everywhere except Tasmania, which remained unchanged at 50 per cent. The largest fall in clearance rates was seen across Canberra (down -13.4 per cent from the previous quarter), followed by Adelaide (-12.2 per cent), Perth (-11.9 per cent) and Melbourne (-11.2 per cent).