Melbourne's big spring test arrives with the Super Saturday of auctions

The Melbourne spring home auction market will host its biggest Saturday of auctions this weekend and the second biggest day of the year as sellers flood the late spring market.

Nearly 1350 homes are set to go under the hammer this Saturday, which although well below last year’s record Saturday offering of 1622 over the same weekend will nonetheless be significantly higher than the 1061 auctioned last weekend. 

Melbourne’s western suburbs will lead the regions for auction activity this Saturday with 213 homes listed to go under the hammer. Next highest is the south with 202 auctions followed by the north-east 185, the inner city 177, the inner east 175, the outer east 153, the north 126 and the south-east with 76 auctions listed.

The most popular suburb for auctions at the weekend will be Reservoir with 22 closely followed by St Kilda 21, East Malvern 19, Craigieburn 18, Glen Iris and Mount Waverley each with 17 and a number of suburbs with 16 auctions listed including Preston, Richmond, Kew and Balwyn.

Melbourne’s weekend home auction market recorded another solid result for sellers last Saturday with a 78.7 per cent clearance rate. That was higher than the 77.6 per cent recorded the previous weekend and significantly ahead of the 66.3 per cent reported over the same weekend last year.

Late spring auction numbers have increased sharply since the Melbourne Cup holiday weekend with the usual rush to market before the year ends. Higher listings have contributed to a slight easing in clearance rates in recent weeks but results remain firmly in favour of sellers in what remain strong local market conditions.

Melbourne’s western suburbs continue to record boom-time results with a leading regional clearance rate of 86.2 per cent last weekend and the highest sales at 119. Next highest was the inner south with 81.7 per cent closely followed by the outer east and the south-east each with 81.1 per cent, the north 79.7 per cent, the north-east 76.5 per cent, the inner east 75 per cent and the inner city with a clearance rate at the weekend of 73.7 per cent.

Melbourne first home buyers continue to make a solid contribution to housing market activity. Latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data reports that the number of home loans approved for first home buyers in Victoria over September increased by 1.4 per cent over the month to 2217. 

Over the first nine months of this year, Victorian first home buyer loans have increased by a healthy 3.2 per cent compared to the same period last year. The average first home buyer loan increased by 3.2 per cent over the month to a record $325,100.

First home buyer loans accounted for 10.5 per cent of all lending for residential purchases in Victoria but remained well below the long-term market share average of 17 per cent.

Dr Andrew Wilson is Domain Group’s chief economist

Twitter @DocAndrewWilson