Brisbane posted a 59.1 per cent preliminary rate based on the 44 reported results of 62 scheduled auctions. Adelaide’s reading was 64.3 per cent based on 28 out of 43 auctions and Perth, with just 17 scheduled auctions, reported a preliminary clearance rate of 40 per cent, with just 10 auctions reported and four sold. The national rate was 59.2 per cent.
The Vaucluse house on a wedge-shaped block offered views back towards the city.
The CoreLogic figures were higher than, but reflected a similar pattern to, the preliminary clearance numbers from rival Domain Group majority owned by Nine, publisher of The Australian Financial Review which showed a 64.4 per cent clearance rate for Sydney, 44.1 per cent for Melbourne and 54.8 per cent nationally.
“Melbourne is probably very weak in the sense that theyve got all those withdrawals occurring, which is what happened through the first lockdown,” AMP Capital chief economist Shane Oliver told the Financial Review.
“That is depressing the clearance rate. And sales are very low. Sydney has well and truly improved in terms of its position since the time of lockdown but its still fairly weak in the great scheme of things.”
The six-bedroom house at 18 Murranji Street, Hawker, ACT, sold $216,000 over reserve at $1,226,000.
Just 15.1 per cent of auctions were withdrawn in Sydney, in a week in which the NSW capital posted its highest preliminary clearance rate since the 77.9 per cent of the week ending May 24.
In Canberra, which posted the country’s highest preliminary clearance rate of 90.6 per cent reflecting the sale of 29 out of 32 reported auctions a six-bedroom house in the Belconnen suburb of Hawker sold $216,000 above reserve.
A young couple with elderly parents and a large extended family won the auction for the 18 Murranji Street house, which started on a bid of $880,000 and finished at $1,226,000.
“There’s a great lack of stock in the Canberra market at the moment demand is outstripping the supply,” Ray White Canberra sales consultant Marissa Ellison said.
But even with a seasonal slowdown in stock on market and sales exacerbated by the pandemic, demand remained strong for higher-quality stock.
“The auctions are taking a breather,” said Melbourne buyers agent Emma Bloom.
“If theyre good, they shouldnt need an auction, they should just be selling. And they do. There are buyers out there and theres still a lot of money where people are keen to transact. But the ones that are no good, that are compromised, are struggling and hanging around.”
Dr Oliver said that despite the current extended “twilight zone” in which the country’s largest real estate markets were gently drifting lower, a time of forced sales would come, triggering a sharper decline in prices.
“Theres still a day of reckoning out there,” he said.
“Weve still lost 600,000 jobs since March. Weve lost 850,000 and got around 240,000 back. The effective unemployment rate is over 11 per cent and weve got this huge slump in immigration.
“A big chunk of people on payment holidays will end up selling their homes and there wont be an enormous run of immigrants coming to buy them.”
