Impressive Capital city Auction clearance rates
There is a continued upward trend in auction clearance rates, strengthening claims of a resurgence in demand for house.
In the week ending 25 August, preliminary auction clearance rate of 79.6%, was reported by Property research group CoreLogic.
which follows from a final clearance rate of 73 per cent recorded in the week before, being the highest final clearance rate in over two years.
Auction clearance rates are up 25 percentage points from 54.6% compared to same week last year.
The clearance rates were highest in Sydney (84.7%), followed by Melbourne (79.7%), Adelaide (72.4%), Canberra (68.9%), Brisbane (67.7%) and Perth (62.5%).
In the same week ending 25 August, Melbourne was host to the largest number of auctions (665), followed by Sydney (500), Brisbane (94), Canberra (75), Adelaide (56) and Perth (20).
This increase in auction clearance rates has come amid mounting evidence of a recent rise in demand for housing.
Mortgage Choice’s CEO Susan Mitchell said the group experienced a sharp increase in demand for home loans in response to the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) back-to-back cuts to the cash rate and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority’s (APRA) new lending guidance.
Ms Mitchell also mentioned that the demand had not come from a particular segment of the market and had come from “across the board”, adding that lenders had reported similar trends.
“We have seen our loan applications rise significantly since June 30. I think everyone has seen that,” she said.
“The feedback I’ve gotten from the banks is that they are as busy as they’ve ever been.”
Despite the impressive clearance rates, the auction volumes were reduced from 1,915 to 1,412 relative to the same period last year.