Almost 100 Canberra homes to go under the hammer amid national auction surge

Saturday is set to complete Australia’s biggest week of auctions this year with almost 100 homes going under the hammer in Canberra alone.

The capital has 117 properties listed for auction this week, according to CoreLogic RP Data, with 86 listed for Saturday alone on Allhomes.

A week earlier Canberra recorded a Saturday clearance rate of 77.8 per cent, the highest of all Australian capital cities and the strongest result so far this year for the nation’s capital.

CoreLogic RP Data auction market commentator Kevin Brogan said this week was Australia’s busiest for auctions this year with 3369 homes set to go under the hammer across the capital cities.

It is the highest volume of auction activity since the last week of November, when 3729 capital city homes went under the hammer.

There were 1488 auctions held across the country last week, according to CoreLogic’s data. The national clearance rate for the week fell from 68.6 per cent for the previous week to 64.9 per cent.

Mr Brogan said Canberra had maintained a relatively strong and steady clearance rate this year, with results hovering around 70 per cent.

“Given the higher volume of auctions and that buyers will have more choice, we could see the clearance rate soften from last week,” Mr Brogan said.

“As a comparison, when the 105 auctions were held over the week of 21 February, Canberra’s clearance rate slipped to 61.9 per cent.”

Mr Brogan said last week’s high clearance rate was likely a combination of fewer homes being brought to auction and the type of stock that went under the hammer.

“In a relatively small auction market, more desirable stock being put up for auction will have a bigger influence on the clearance rate performance,” Mr Brogan said.

“If we look at the median price of auctions sold last week, it was $733,000, compared to a lower $645,000 the previous week.”

Mr Brogan said this week’s high volume of auctions was the result of fewer homes under the hammer on the Canberra Day long weekend and vendors wanting to get their property to auction before the Easter holidays.

There were just 37 auctions held in the nation’s capital on Saturday, March 12. Allhomes had just one home listed for auction on Easter Saturday, as of Friday afternoon.

“If we compare the week leading up to Easter last year, there were 91 Canberra auctions, so the volumes weren’t as high,” Mr Brogan said.

“However, Easter fell later in the month so, the conditions that we are seeing now don’t provide a complete like-for-like comparison.

“Canberra is a relatively small auction market compared to the likes of Sydney and Melbourne, however, a weekend with this many auctions isn’t completely out of the ordinary.”

Real Estate Institute of the ACT president Frank Pompeani​ agreed the two long weekends either side of March 19 had attributed to the high number of auctions listed for Saturday, as well as a strong local market.

But he didn’t expect the surge to drastically skew the territory’s existing average clearance rate.

“Since the beginning of the year, across the Canberra region, the clearance rate has been just under 70 per cent. It’s the strongest we’ve seen for some time,” he said.

“I don’t see why it won’t stay strong with the number of properties going to auction in the Canberra region [on Saturday]. It indicates a strong marketplace.”

Mr Brogan said more than 100 auctions were held across Canberra in six out of the eight weeks leading up to Christmas. Activity peaked at 131 auctions during the week ending November 1.

Across the country, capital city listings are 12.7 per cent higher than they were at this time last year and at their highest level since December, 2012.

Canberra is one of just two cities with fewer properties on the market than last year, with stock levels dropping 4.6 per cent. Hobart saw the biggest drop in listings, with 16.6 per cent fewer homes on the market than 12 months ago.

Capital city auctions this week:

Melbourne: 1701

Sydney: 1074

Brisbane: 257

Adelaide: 137

Canberra: 117

Perth: 74