Spring auction fever is running rampant across Australia’s unsuspecting capital cities, with CoreLogic economist Kaytlin Ezzy reporting that the preliminary numbers are already pointing to a stupendous surge in hammer-bashing activity this week.

As per usual it’s the Emerald City of Australian playwright David Williamson’s 1987 satire – Sydney – which leads the way, driving the combined capitals into what will offer the single busiest, and therefore the widest, breadth of home-buying excitement of the year-to-date.

As one of the many poor suckers out there every Saturday, I can attest that the use of the word ‘excitement’ is entirely erroneous and may be swapped out with more accurately appropriate words like ‘agony,’ ‘marriage-breaking’ and/or ‘skin-crawling’.

But I can also provide first-hand confirmation that it is a mad-house house hunt right now.

The much celebrated (by agents) Spring Selling Season is as alive and kicking, swooping and mating as is the the magpie, the gobsmacked and confused squealing infant-holding parents and the black snake – according to the new data as the flowers bloom and the bees buzz, we’re headed smack-bang into the busiest bit of auctioning this lucky, messed-up property poor country has seen since late May last year.

 

Via CoreLogic

 

Kaytlin says that with 2,725 homes expected to go under the hammer, this week’s auction volumes are 17.8% higher than the 2,314 homes auctioned last week and more than double the auctions seen this time last year (1,316).

“Last year’s auction numbers were impacted by multiple public holidays, including the national day of mourning for Her Majesty the Queen, the AFL grand final and the Sovereign’s birthday in QLD and WA.”

 

SYDNEY (1,094)

The Emerald City of Sydney – a name it shares with at least seven US cities alone – is set to host its busiest auction week since the week ending May 29 2022 (1,109), with 1,094 homes currently scheduled for auction.

That’s a spike of almost 20% compared to last week (927), this week’s expected auction activity is 35.6% higher than this time last year when 807 auctions were held.

CoreLogic’s Kaytlin Ezzy. (pic via CoreLogic’s Kaytlin Ezzy)

 

MELBOURNE (1,083)

After falling below the 1,000 mark last week (982), Melbourne’s auction activity is expected to rebound 10.3% this week, with 1,083 auctions scheduled across the city, according to CoreLogic.

This week’s auction numbers are more than seven times those seen this time last year (130) when the national day of mourning and the AFL grand final saw Victoria celebrate an extra-long weekend.

 

THE OTHER ONES

Across the smaller, far-less meaningful capitals, auction activity is set to rise 34.8% this week, says Kaitlin with Brisbane and Adelaide both expecting the busiest auction weeks of the year-to-date. Brisbane is set to host the busiest market among the smaller capitals, with 238 homes scheduled for auction, followed by Adelaide (182) and Canberra (108).

Perth is expecting 19 homes to go under the hammer this week.

 

ALL OF TASMANIA

Tasmania – not just Hobart, mind you – is currently scheduled for a total of one auction. A 100% improvement on last week’s total of zero.

 

The Week that Was

Last week’s rise in volume was accompanied by the lowest combined capital city clearance rate since Easter (61.5%).

australia auction rates
Via CoreLogic

 

The decline was driven by a dip in vendor confidence, with the combined capital’s withdrawal rate rising 1.4 percentage points to 8.8%.

The previous week saw 65.8% of auctions record a successful result, while this time last year, 60.1% of auctions were successful.

Sydney also hosted its busiest auction week since before Easter, while its clearance rate rose 30 basis points last week, with 67.3% of auctions reporting a successful result.

The slightly higher clearance rate was the result of a lower portion of properties passed in at auction (19.3%, down -3.3 percentage points week-on-week), offset by a rise in the withdrawal rate (13.4%, up 3.0 percentage points).

A final clearance rate of 67.0% was recorded the previous week while, this time last year, 57.1% of Sydney auctions were successful.

 

australia auction rates
Via CoreLogic

 

Capital city auction activity is set to plummet to just over 1,300 next week, with five of the seven states and territories celebrating long weekends.

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