Top Melbourne market resumes after Easter break

The home auction market resumes this weekend following last Saturday’s pause in activity due to the Easter holiday break. Just 26 auctions were listed last weekend, with a reported clearance rate of 65 per cent.  

However, nearly 500 homes are set to go under the hammer this Saturday, which will challenge a market still distracted by the school holiday period. Despite this, Melbourne auction activity will be lower than the 562 listings recorded over the same post-Easter weekend last year.

The western suburbs will clearly host the highest number of auctions this weekend with 120. The outer east is next highest with 71 followed by the north-east 67, the inner city 57, the north 52, the south-east 45, the inner south 31 and the inner east with 29 auctions.

It will be a big weekend for auctions in St Albans with 15 listed ahead of the next highest suburb, Reservoir, with 12 followed by Glen Waverley, Craigieburn and Thomastown each with 10 and Elwood, St Kilda and Caroline Springs that will each host seven auctions on Saturday.

Melbourne remains the leading capital city home auction market, again recording the highest clearance rate from the highest listings in March. The Melbourne rate of 72.7 per cent was just below the 72.9 per cent recorded in February and also below the 75.8 per cent recorded in March last year. 

Weekend listings averaged 754 over March, well ahead of the 670 average recorded in February but below March last year’s result of 928. The median price of homes sold at auction in March increased by 2.7 per cent in March to $807,000 and was just ahead of the median of $802,000 recorded in March last year.

Melbourne’s inner south reported the highest clearance rate in March with 78.7 per cent followed by the inner east 74.4 per cent and the north-east with 73.3 per cent.  Regional clearance rates remained remarkably consistent over the month.  

Melbourne’s west recorded the highest auction listings in March with 505 followed by the inner south with 464 and the north-east 458. The inner east clearly recorded the highest median auction price at $1,342,000 with next highest the inner south at $987,000 with the northern suburbs the most affordable with a median of $598,000.

Auction activity in Melbourne will continue to rise through to the Queen’s Birthday holiday break in June, which will signal the beginning of the quieter winter auction market. The local market can be expected to continue to produce robust and consistent results following a confident and resilient beginning to the year.

Dr Andrew Wilson is Domain Group’s chief economist

Twitter @DocAndrewWilson