Record auction day to begin Melbourne June market

The Melbourne winter home auction market officially begins this weekend with a record number of listings as sellers rush to take advantage of the still robust local market conditions.

Over 1000 homes are set to go under the hammer this Saturday which will be lower than the 1143 conducted last weekend but well ahead of the 841 listed over the same weekend last year.

This weekend’s auction numbers will be a record June Saturday offering surpassing the previous record set of 955 on set on June 18 2016.

Melbourne’s west remains the most popular region for auction activity this weekend with 197 listings and well ahead of the next highest the inner south with 144.  The north east follows with 140 with the inner city 138, the outer east 118, the inner east 101, the north 99 and the south east with 75 auctions.

Preston is the top suburb for auctions on Saturday with 20 followed by Brighton 19, Reservoir 18, East Bentleigh and Craigieburn each with 16, Brunswick 15 and Hoppers Crossing, Epping and Werribee each with 14 auctions scheduled.

Melbourne’s robust home auction market tracked backwards last weekend to end autumn with the lowest Saturday clearance rate of the year so far.

Melbourne recorded a clearance rate of 76.6 percent last weekend which was lower than the 79.7 per cent recorded the previous weekend and just ahead of the 75.2 per cent recorded over the same weekend last year.

Although the strong Melbourne market eased at the weekend, the underlying drivers of housing market activity remain positive. Record migration, an underlying shortage of homes and a solid local economy will ensure demand remains ahead of supply. Changes to the stamp duty for first home buyers will also likely result in surging demand from this group from July.

Although recent national economic data has been largely underwhelming, the Melbourne economy continues to record overall positive results. Latest ABS data reports a Melbourne jobless rate of 6.5 per cent over April which was well above the 5.6 per cent recorded over April last year and reflects the impact of high levels of migration on the jobs market.

The Melbourne economy has however added 87,664 jobs to the workforce over the past year with the participation rate increasing sharply from 65.7 per cent to a high 67.2 per cent.

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