Melbourne winter home sellers on the rise

August auction numbers are predictably climbing with Melbourne home sellers confidently engaging robust late winter buyer activity.

Melbourne is set to host over 800 auctions this weekend which will be higher than last weekend’s 762 and the highest Saturday offering since June 24. This weekend’s auction numbers are also well ahead of the 523 auctioned over the same weekend last year.

Melbourne’s west will yet again host the most auctions this Saturday with 166 scheduled followed by the inner east 118, the north east 112, the inner city 104, the inner south 91, the outer east 84, the north 65 and the south east with 49 auctions listed.

Reservoir is the most popular suburbs for auctions in Melbourne this weekend with 17 followed by Craigieburn, Kew and Glen Iris each with 12, Pascoe Vale 11 and a number of suburbs with 10 auctions scheduled including Richmond, St Albans and Bundoora.

The Melbourne home auction market commenced August with its lowest result for a month although sellers can be satisfied with what remains clearly a robust late-winter market.

Melbourne reported a clearance rate of 73.7 per cent last Saturday which was lower than the previous weekends 76.2 per cent result and lower than the 77.9 per cent reported over the same weekend last year.

Melbourne’s home auction market strengthened over July despite the usual mid-winter distractions and school holidays impacting buyer activity.

Melbourne recorded an overall auction clearance rate of 71.7 per cent over the month which was higher than the 69.5 per cent recorded over the previous month and slightly below the 72.1 per cent recorded over the same month last year. Last year’s winter market was driven by interest rate cuts in May and August which aided in keeping activity in the local market bubbling along. Melbourne’s clearance rate was the highest of all the capitals and well ahead of Sydney’s 64.9 per cent.

Similar to monthly auction clearance rates, mid-winter auction numbers also remained strong despite seasonal effects.  3429 homes were listed for auction over July which was well ahead of the 2371 listed over July 2016.

Over the first 7 months of this year, 21571 Melbourne homes have been auctioned which is 16.9 per cent higher or 3122 more than the 18449 listed over the same period last year.

August will typically see higher numbers of auctions as the spring selling season approaches with buyer activity also set to rise. Unlike last year however, the market will lack the stimulus of lower interest rates with the Reserve Bank predictably deciding to leave rates on hold over August – where they will most likely remain for the rest of the year.

Andrew Wilson is Domain Group Chief Economist Twitter@DocAndrewWilson join on LinkedIn and Facebook at MyHousingMarket