Melbourne market still ticking over nicely as investors revive

The robust Melbourne home auction market continues to perform confidently despite the usual mid-winter quietening of activity levels.

Just over 500 auctions are listed this weekend in Melbourne, which will be similar to the 532 auctioned last weekend but well below the 649 listed over the same weekend last year. 

Melbourne’s west region will clearly host the highest number of auctions this weekend, with 109 scheduled, followed by the outer east 71, the north east 67, the inner city 63, the inner south 61, the inner east 43, the south east 39 and the north with 35 auctions on Saturday.

Glen Waverley will again top the list of suburban auctions this Saturday with 15 followed by Reservoir 12, Richmond nine, Bundoora eight and several suburbs with seven auctions listed including St Albans, St Kilda, East Bentleigh, Sunshine and Footscray.

The Melbourne weekend home auction market recorded another robust result last weekend despite the ongoing distractions of political uncertainty and the mid-winter school holiday period     

Melbourne reported a healthy clearance rate of 75.7 per cent on Saturday, which was higher than the 73.5 per cent recorded over the previous weekend and the highest recorded in nearly three months.

Although last Saturday’s result was again below the 79.2 per cent reported over the same weekend last year, the recent trend for clearance rates is now rising compared to a year ago when the market was clearly on the slide.

Increased investor activity has been a driver of continuing solid market conditions in Melbourne – particularly in the northern and western suburbs. Latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data reports that the value of investor lending in Victoria increased by 17.3 per cent over May compared to April. The May total of $3.6 billion was the highest monthly total recorded for the year so far. 

Lower interest rates and the prospect of a change to negative gearing have seen investor activity increasing in the Melbourne housing market to the highest levels this year with house price increases set to certainly follow as a consequence.

Andrew Wilson is Domain Group’s chief economist

Twitter @DocAndrewWilson