Signs Melbourne's property market is set to fade

Small numbers of auctions will be conducted in Melbourne this weekend following last weekend’s record-breaking Super Saturday of September auctions.

Just 43 homes are listed to go under the hammer on Saturday, similar to grand final weekend last year.

Early signs are emerging that the Melbourne market may be losing its early spring energy with buyers and sellers more evenly matched. We await the battle resuming – but next weekend.

Sellers will typically avoid the distractions of the holiday long weekend and the AFL grand final but the market will be up and running again next weekend.

Over September, each Saturday saw an average of 977 auctions as sellers rushed into the market. This rush will accelerate over coming weekends with more than 1200 auctions expected to flood the market next Saturday and numbers set to keep rising all the way to the Melbourne Cup holiday weekend.  

The most popular suburb for auctions this Saturday is Mount Waverley with four auctions scheduled, followed by Springvale and Glen Waverley.

Melbourne’s Super Saturday of early spring auctions last weekend reported overall solid results as record September listings tested the market with sellers avoiding the distractions of this weekend’s AFL Grand Final.   

Melbourne recorded a clearance rate of 73.3 per cent last Saturday that was just below the previous weekend’s 74.5 per cent result and lower than 77.7 per cent recorded over Super Saturday last year.

Melbourne’s auction market has shown signs of weakening over recent weekends with clearance rates falling over each of the past four Saturdays. Unprecedented numbers of September auctions were a factor in weaker clearance rates as sellers face more competition and buyers have more choice of properties.  

Melbourne’s trend auction price fell marginally last weekend down from the previous weekends $806,222 to $793,972. Local trend auction prices however remain 10.4 per cent higher than the $719,375 recorded over the same weekend last year.

Dr Andrew Wilson is Domain Group’s senior economist.