Early figures have pointed to last week being an improved one for Australia’s auction market.

Preliminary figures from CoreLogic RP Data show that the national auction clearance rate currently sits at 63.7% from the 2,898 auctions held across the country last week.

If the preliminary rate holds firm, it would signify an increase on the previous week’s final clearance rate of 61%.

The improvement in the national clearance rate was driven by a stronger week for the Melbourne market.

Last week saw 1,189 homes go under the hammer in the Victorian capital, up from the 629 during the previous week.

That increase in volumes seemed to be attractive to buyers, with the city’s preliminary clearance rate sitting at 69.3%, up from the previous week’s 65.6%.

While it is a stronger week-on-week result, no improvement in the preliminary rate would result in three straight weeks of Melbourne’s clearance rate being below 70%.

Over the same weekend last year, Melbourne’s clearance rate was 65.5% across 1,139 auctions.

The Mornington Peninsula was Melbourne’s strongest sub-region last week, with its preliminary clearance rate sitting at 78.4%.

Sydney will be hoping for no downward movement in its preliminary clearance rate which has been recorded at 61.9% for last week, which would be an improvement on the final rate of 58.2% recorded for the previous week – the lowest weekly clearance rate since early 2013.

For the corresponding week 12 months ago, 1,261 auctions were held across Sydney and a clearance rate of 68.1% was recorded.

North Sydney-Hornsby was Sydney’s busiest sub-region last week, hosting 198 auctions and returning a preliminary clearance rate of 67.1%.

In Brisbane, the preliminary clearance rate sits at 42.2% from 109 results reported so far, which currently represents a decrease on the previous week’s clearance rate of 48.8%.

Adelaide’s preliminary clearance rate currently sits at 64% from 114 reported results, while in Canberra the preliminary clearance rate sits a 78.3%.

Perth’s preliminary clearance rate currently sits at just 17.8%, while in Tasmania two sales have been reported from nine auctions.