Melbourne auction market up and running

The Melbourne home auction market will step up a gear this Saturday following last weekend’s typically slow start to the autumn selling season.

Auction numbers were predictably low for a late January holiday-impacted weekend; however the 45 homes listed were significantly down on the 98 listings recorded over the same season opening weekend last year.

Auction numbers in Melbourne will surge this weekend with the lengthy holiday season now completed and buyers and seller gradually re-focussing on the local market. Nearly 200 homes are scheduled to go under the hammer on Saturday which will be similar to the 203 conducted over the same weekend last year.

The west suburban region will clearly host the most number of auctions with 62 followed by the outer east and the south east each with 27, the inner city 18, the north east and the inner south each with 16, the north 11 and the inner east with 8 auctions listed on Saturday.

The most popular suburb for auctions this weekend in Melbourne is Hoppers Crossing with 8 followed by St Albans with 6, Epping 5 and a number of suburbs with 4 auctions scheduled including Maribyrnong, Richmond and Werribee.

The Melbourne weekend auction season re-commenced for 2017 last Saturday after a five weekend holiday break and produced mixed results for the small number sellers testing the early season market.

Low auction numbers can result in misleading insights into the underlying nature of the housing market with a more robust understanding to be revealed as listings climb sharply over coming weekends. Melbourne recorded a clearance rate of 70.0 per cent last Saturday which was a little below the 74.1 per cent recorded over the same weekend last year.

The north east, the outer east, the west and the inner east all reported 100 per cent clearance rates last weekend from low listing numbers.  Next highest was the south east with 50 per cent followed by the north with a clearance rate of 42.9 per cent. The inner south and the inner city did not report auction results on the weekend

The Reserve Bank will meet for the first time this year next week to decide the level of official interest rates for February.  Recent economic data remains underwhelming, particularly with the national jobless rate rising to 5.8 percent over December – the highest result for the year. Although the Bank is more likely to leave rates on hold for the fifth consecutive month, a pre-emptive early year cut similar to February 2015 can’t be ruled out.

Dr Andrew Wilson is Domain Group Chief Economist Twitter@DocAndrewWilson join on LinkedIn