Quieter auction weekend for surging Melbourne spring market

Auction numbers in Melbourne will be lower this weekend with buyer activity in the early local market continuing to surge.

Just under 800 homes are scheduled to go under the hammer this Saturday, which will be lower than the 846 auctioned last weekend and also again well down on the 955 conducted over the same weekend last year.

Melbourne’s inner east is the most popular region for auctions this weekend with 118, followed by the west with 114, the inner south 111, the north east 99, the outer east 98, the inner city 96, the north 80 and the south east 51.

Kew is the most popular auction suburb in Melbourne on Saturday with 16, followed by East Bentleigh and Richmond each with 14, Burwood with 13, Reservoir 12 and Brighton and Craigieburn with 11 auctions each listed at the weekend.

Buyer momentum continues to build in the already strong early-spring Melbourne home auction market that recorded month-high results last weekend.

Melbourne recorded a clearance rate of 78.4 per cent last Saturday, ahead of the 77.5 per cent reported over the previous weekend and well up on the 75.7 per cent over the same weekend last year.

Last weekend’s result was the highest recorded by the local market for a month and consolidates the strong start to the early spring selling season over recent weekends. The current robust nature of the Melbourne housing market is in contrast to last spring when the market tracked backwards under rising mortgage rates.

The current strength of the market is being shared consistently by most suburbs, but the north continues to be the star performer.

The Melbourne auction market continues to steam into spring, although auction numbers remain well below last year’s record-level offerings. Total listings are also lower with newly listed homes falling by 4.5 per cent over August compared to the same month last year.

Positive economic news will help to bolster the local housing market with the Australian Bureau of Statistics reporting that GDP increased by 3.3 per cent over the year ending the June quarter – the best annual result in four years – although much of the recent growth reflected government spending.

Andrew Wilson is Domain Group’s chief economist

Twitter @DocAndrewWilson