No spring bounce for Australia’s auction market

Australia's auction market has continued to struggle, with no signs of improvement in the latest figures. The final clearance rate for the week ending September 6 stood at 49.3%, marking the 14th consecutive week below the 50% threshold. This is a significant decline compared to the same period last year, when the clearance rate was 70.0%, indicating a 20.7 percentage point drop.

Auction volumes have also fallen by 32.6% during this period. While the overall clearance rate has shown a slight improvement from June's low, it remains at a level that reflects ongoing price declines. In Sydney, the clearance rate increased to 52.5% from 51.5%, reaching its highest since July 26, though auction numbers fell by 1.6% to 501 from 509.

Melbourne's clearance rate improved to 54.6% from 53.7%, the strongest level since August 9, with auction volumes up by 1.9% to 656 from 644 the previous week. However, Brisbane's market has seen a dramatic drop, with only 26.0% of auctions resulting in a sale, the lowest in any capital city, and a decrease of 10.3% from the previous week.

The Cotality's daily dwelling values index continues to decline rapidly, with a 1.3% drop over the last month and a quarterly decline of 3.9% across all major markets. The decline from the peak value has reached 5.2% at the 5-city aggregate level, suggesting it could surpass the record decline of 2017-19 by the end of the year. This weekend, 1,615 homes are scheduled for auction, up 12.9% from last week but still 32.8% below the 2,402 auctions held in the same period last year. Despite the spring selling season starting, auction volumes remain well below last year's levels.