Capital city auctions up, clearance rates down

Heading to auction may not give you the best bet for selling your home in 2019, as research shows clearance rates have fallen.

With Australia’s housing slump more or less forecast to hit this year, locations across the country are beginning to feel a proper property pinch, as auction activity shifts. While the past few years may have seen growth in auctions and prices, the end of 2018 has been painting a very different picture.

In fact, a recent report by CoreLogic has revealed clearance rates in Australian capital cities have dropped to 43.6 per cent in the three months to December 2018, dropping from 53.6 per cent in the previous quarter, and 62.3 per cent in the three months to December 2017.

But while auctions hitting their peak and being sold have dropped, houses actually going to auction appear to have increased, with the last quarter revealing 25,894 homes in Australia going to auction, up from the previous quarter’s 20,653.

Across much of the country, those auctions have resulted in less than half being sold, with only Tasmania hitting a 50 per cent clearance rate. Elsewhere, the results are less positive, with the lowest clearance rate for the Q4 2018 in Perth at 25 per cent, followed by Brisbane at 31.8 per cent, Sydney at 43.1 per cent, and Melbourne at 45.4 per cent.

Clearance rates dropped outside of Australia’s capital cities, too, with the Hunter region falling 18.8 per cent, Geelong at 17.3 per cent, and Wollongong at 10.2 per cent.

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