Auction numbers down after strong start to spring season

Auction numbers in Melbourne will be down sharply this weekend following last Saturday’s surge in listings that signalled the unofficial start to the spring selling season.

Just over 700 homes are scheduled to go under the hammer this Saturday, significantly fewer than the 877 auctioned last weekend. Auction numbers will also be well down on the 880 conducted over the same weekend last year, continuing this year’s winter trend of reduced seller activity in the Melbourne market.

Melbourne’s west continues to be the leading suburban region for auction listings with this weekend 121 homes scheduled to go under the hammer. Next highest is the inner city region with 105, followed by the inner south with 103, the outer east 88, the north west 83, the inner east 77, the north 64 and the south east with 47 auctions listed.

Mount Waverley heads the list for the most popular auction suburb in Melbourne on Saturday with 14, followed by St Kilda, 12, East Bentleigh and Craigieburn each with 11, Reservoir and South Morang each with 10 and a number of suburbs with nine auctions listed including Preston, South Yarra and East Brighton.

The Melbourne home auction market welcomed the unofficial start to the spring selling season last weekend with yet another top result for sellers.

Melbourne recorded a clearance rate of 77.9 per cent last Saturday, which was just above the 77.7 per cent reported over the previous weekend but lower than the 79.1 per cent recorded over the same season-opening weekend last year.

Although spring officially starts in September, the spring selling season typically commences over the last weekend in August with a surge in auctions signalling the end of the more subdued winter market.

Melbourne’s suburban regions continue to share reasonably consistently in the strong market conditions with just 10 per cent separating the top results from the bottom last weekend. The north and the west, however, continue to be leading performers, with the east, although still producing healthy results for sellers, continuing to bring up the rear.

Melbourne has commenced the spring selling well and truly on the front foot with yet another strong clearance rate with most suburbs continuing to report solid buyer activity.

Market conditions are likely to remain robust for sellers through spring particularly driven by fierce competition from buyers for available properties with stock levels likely to remain significantly lower than last spring’s record offerings.

Strong clearance rates will result in higher houses prices in Melbourne, although the level of growth is unlikely to match the extraordinary results recorded at the height of last year’s prices boom.

Melbourne reported its highest monthly auction clearance rate for the year over August at 75.5 per cent – well ahead of the 71.8 per cent recorded over July.

Melbourne’s median asking price for houses is also on the rise, increasing by 1.1 per cent over the August quarter and is now 11.1 per cent higher than that recorded over the August quarter last year – the best performance of all the capitals.

Dr Andrew Wilson is Domain Group’s chief economist

Twitter @DocAndrewWilson