Canberra auction market smashes local records

The Canberra home auction market has finished summer with its best February performance on record reporting unprecedented buyer and seller activity.

Canberra recorded a remarkable clearance rate of 74.1 per cent over February which was the highest rate ever reported by the city with the previous February record of 73.0 per cent set in 2010.

The clearance rate record was achieved despite Canberra hosting its highest ever number of February auctions with 311 listed and well ahead of the previous peak of 263 set last year.

The latest Canberra result was higher than the 61.8 per cent recorded over last December and well ahead of the 67.4 percent reported over February 2016.

Although the Canberra auction market reported new monthly records for clearance rates and volumes, the median auction sale price over February increased by just 2.9 per cent to $710,000 compared to February last year.

Canberra sellers have returned to the auction market this year keen to take advantage of the continuing strong buyer competition for property with listings up by 18.3 per cent over compared to the same period last year.

The top Canberra regions for auction clearance rates over February was Woden Valley with 84.2 per cent and Belconnen with 80.5% and the lowest Tuggeranong with 57.9 per cent

The top performing Canberra suburbs for auction activity for houses over February with 100 per cent clearance rates were Curtin from 8 listings and a number of suburbs with 4 reported sales including Deakin, Dunlop, Florey and Hackett.

The top performing suburbs for units over February with 100 per cent clearance rates were Griffith from 4 reported listings and Ainslie and Garran each from 2 listings.

Dr Andrew Wilson is Domain Group Chief Economist Twitter@DocAndrewWilson join on LinkedIn and Facebook at MyHousingMarket