Canberra auction report card: November 2020

Canberra’s auction clearance rate was 73.1 per cent in November, the strongest November outcome on record.

The monthly clearance rate was 6.6 percentage points higher compared to one year ago, although it did slip 3.3 percentage points from the robust performance last month.

Auction numbers rise

It is clear the auction market is proving to be resilient despite buyer appetite being tested by a lift in the number of homes being auctioned.

In November, 352 homes were scheduled to go under the hammer, just over one-fifth more auctions than October.

However, auction activity was 16.8 per cent lower than November 2019.

The drop in auction numbers is to be expected given November 2020 had four Saturdays while November last year had five Saturdays, typically the biggest day for auction activity.

Record proportion of vendors selling prior to auction

Canberra continues to have an elevated cohort of sellers who are accepting an offer before the auction day.

In November, a record proportion of vendors sold prior to auction at 27.1 per cent, which was a similar outcome to the COVID-induced April bounce at 27 per cent and significantly higher than the 16.5 per cent selling prior in November last year.

The proportion of scheduled auctions selling prior had begun to rise late last year before the pandemic, although the coronavirus crisis appears to have accelerated this trend.

A rising proportion of homes selling prior to auction can illustrate a market on the move. For some areas it could signal that the buyer pool is not deep enough for a competitive auction or, as competition to secure a home increases, buyers are more likely to place a robust offer prior to auction day to avoid driving prices even higher at a competitive auction.

In November, only 5.1 per cent of sellers withdrew from auction, back to the historical average.

Record auction prices

The median auction price was $923,000 based on the houses auctioned over November, or $891,000 based on the rolling three-month average.

Either way, median house auction prices are at record highs and have risen by double digits compared to last year.

Canberra region performance