Australia’s auction market appears to have weakened further, with the current combined capital city preliminary clearance rate sitting at the second lowest mark for the year.

 

According to figures from CoreLogic RP Data, the preliminary clearance rate for last week’s 3,086 auctions sits at 66.6% following soft results in Melbourne and Sydney.

 

The result means the national clearance rate has now been below 70% for six consecutive weeks.

 

Melbourne had it busiest week of the year last week with 1,663 auctions, but the increased volumes weren’t snapped up by buyers, with the preliminary clearance rate coming in at just 69.8%, which is currently the city’s third lowest result for the year.

 

At the same time last year, Melbourne hosted 1,837 auctions and recorded a clearance rate of 71%.

 

Melbourne’s busiest sub-region last week was the inner-city, where 341 auctions were held and a clearance rate of 73.7% was recorded.

 

In Sydney, it looks like the harbour city is in for another week of a sub-70% clearance rate, with its preliminary clearance rate currently at 64.4% from 996 auctions.

 

That mark so far represents a small increase on the previous week’s final clearance rate of 63.7%, but is far below the 74.8% recorded across 961 auctions at the same time last year.

 

The Eastern Suburbs was Sydney’s strongest sub-region last week, with a current clearance rate of 84.3%.

 

In Brisbane, an increase in auction volumes seemed to attract buyers this week.

 

The Queensland capital’s current clearance rate sits at 54.8% from 223 auctions, compared to last week’s final rate of 47.6% from 145 auctions.

 

Adelaide has the country’s highest clearance rate, with it currently sitting at 74.6%, a mark that is higher than both the previous week (67.5%) and the same week a year ago (56.5%).

 

Canberra’s preliminary clearance rate sits at 67.5%, while Perth’s is currently 31.3%.

 

Of the eight Tasmanian auction results reported so far this week, four sales have been recorded.