Housing auction clearance rates across the country have surged higher than expected, with the steady rise welcomed ahead of a predicted spring peak in listings.

The number of homes taken to auction in the past week reached 1600, slightly higher than last week’s numbers, but climbing steadily.  

The number of homes taken to auction across the combined capital cities increased to 1633 this week, returning a preliminary clearance rate of 75.7 per cent.

Compared to the previous week, there’s been an increase from 1533 homes taken to auction returning a final clearance rate of 72.3 per cent.

CoreLogic data shows the clearance rate across combined capitals will likely hold above 70 per cent for the 5th consecutive week, compared to 1983 homes taken to auction last year, returning a significantly lower clearance rate of 51.8 per cent.

The two largest cities were almost neck and neck this week, with Melbourne hosting 824 auctions, returning a preliminary clearance rate of 75.7 per cent. This marks the 8th consecutive week where Melbourne’s clearance rate has held above 70.0 per cent. 

Sydney recorded a higher preliminary clearance than Melbourne, with a clearance rate of 80.3 per cent, however had less auctions, with 580 held. Over the previous week, final results show 75.7 per cent of the 528 auctions were successful. 

CoreLogic auction market commentator Kevin Brogan said Sydney’s numbers were slightly higher last week, but the clearance rates remained stable. 

“Sydney is down from last week, but in context, we should not lose sight that Sydney is still above 80 per cent, which is still pretty high,” Mr Brogan said.

Across the smaller auction markets, Adelaide, Canberra and Perth saw lower auction volumes week-on-week while Brisbane and Tasmania saw an increase in the number of homes taken to auction over the week. The Gold coast had a big weekend for auctions, with steady clearance rate numbers.

“We’re coming from a period where we saw clearance rates falling sharply, so we’re in a recovery period from that. I would expect it will take a little while for volume to come back into the market,” Mr Brogan said.

Sydney was only just ahead of Melbourne last week, says Mr Brogan and units over the last few weeks have performed better in Melbourne than in Sydney, due to affordability issues with the medium house price in Sydney at $1.33 million. 

“In previous weeks we’ve seen units preforming a little bit better, combined with budget constraints, and an increase in first home buyers.”

However, this week in Sydney houses cleared better than units, which is the first time there’s been a gap as big as 10 per cent between houses and units in the city.

“While we do see the gap happen from time to time, it is something that warrants a further look, and it may well have something to do with an increase in enquiry of older units,” Mr Brogan said

Results will continue to be collected until Wednesday night before publishing final figures, which could mean the preliminary results could be subject to change. 

CLEARANCE RATES BY CAPITAL CITY FOR THE WEEK:

Sydney … 80.3 per cent

Melbourne … 75.7 per cent

Brisbane … 57.1 per cent

Adelaide … 62.5 per cent

Perth … 60.0 per cent

Tasmania … not available

Canberra … 76.1 per cent

Source: AAP

Image Source: Homesales