Record number of homes for auction in Melbourne's first spring Super Saturday

Melbourne will host its first Super Saturday of auctions of the spring selling season this weekend, with a September record number of homes set to go under the hammer.

The Saturday before the AFL Grand Final typically features high numbers of auctions in Melbourne as sellers seek to avoid the distractions of the big game the following weekend.

Record numbers of auctions have been a feature of the early spring auction market this year, so it’s no surprise that this year’s Super Saturday will create another high water market for September activity.

About 1100 homes are listed for auction at the weekend, which will be well ahead of the 995 conducted last weekend and up on the 1008 conducted during the pre-Grand Final Super Saturday last year. 

Melbourne’s western suburbs will host the most auctions this Saturday, with 172 scheduled, followed by the north-east with 168, the inner city with 163, the outer east with 149, the inner south with 137, the north with 112 , the inner east with 104 and the south-east with 64.

The most popular suburb for auctions this Saturday is once again Reservoir, with 23, followed by South Yarra on 22, Richmond with 19, Preston and Glen Waverley each with 16 and several suburbs with 14 auctions listed this weekend, including Mount Waverley, Brunswick, Melbourne and Pascoe Vale.

This Saturday presents another big test for Melbourne’s home auction market that has clearly faded in recent weekends.

Melbourne recorded a clearance rate of 74.5 percent last Saturday, which was again the lowest result since mid-February. Clearance rates have now fallen over three consecutive weekends, with the market trend clearly on the downslope.

Saturday’s clearance rate was below the previous weekend’s 75.7 percent result and down again on the 77.7 percent recorded over the same weekend last year.  

Although the clearance rate fell again at the weekend, Melbourne’s trend auction price continues to rise – up from the previous weekends $798,972 to $806,222. Local trend auction prices are now 10.2 percent higher than the $731,875 recorded over the same weekend last year.

Despite the Melbourne weekend auction market weakening over recent weekends, local conditions clearly remain in favour of sellers.

Similar results between regions and price ranges also reflect the relatively healthy nature of the early spring market.

But this weekend’s record-breaking super Saturday of auctions certainly will provide more choice for buyers and more competition between sellers.