Only 526 capital city homes were taken to auction on the first week of auction reporting, which is 34% lower than last year’s 790, according to data released by CoreLogic. Preliminary auction clearance rate were at 47.8% compared to the 62% clearance rate last year. 

Sydney recorded the strongest clearance rate of 53.7% across 129 auctions. Melbourne had the highest number of homes auctioned, 156, and a clearance rate of 44.1%. Adelaide was the second best performing auction market this week with 102 homes taken to auction, and a clearance rate of 52.8%.   

On the other hand, the worst performing market was Perth. There were only 30 homes taken to auction where 4 were cleared, resulting in a clearance rate of 25%.  

It is important to note that volumes are significantly lower than what we are seeing at the end of last year. With such low activity, clearance rates are less indicative of auction conditions for 2019. We may be able to get a firmer perspective when the number of auction increases over the next few weeks.