The number of homes taken to auction across the combined capital cities this week climbed to 1,472 from 1,026 over the previous week. The preliminary clearance rate, likewise, rose to 58.8% from last week’s final clearance rate of 50.4%. Once final results for the week are collected, the number will most likely revise down to the low 50% range.

The results above could be encouraging compared to earlier figures in 2019. Data from CoreLogic, though, showed that the current week’s auction volume is still much lower than a year ago (2,311). The clearance rate was recorded at 62.1% during the same time in 2018.

Six hundred seventy-eight homes went under the hammer this week in Melbourne. The figure logged is higher from the previous week’s auction volume of 498. Last year at this time, a total of 1,144 homes were taken to auction across Victoria’s capital. The preliminary auction clearance rate came in at 60.8% this week— up from 53.6% over the previous week but lower than this time last year (63.7%).

Sydney, which is known to be one of the busiest auction markets in the country, posted a lower volume than Melbourne. New South Wale’s capital was host to 535 auctions this week, with preliminary results returning a 66.6% clearance rate across 326 properties sold.

Over the previous week, 332 auctions were held across the city, and a final clearance rate of 52.4% was recorded. This time last year, 63.1% of the 797 Sydney homes auctioned were successful.

Across the smaller auction markets, Brisbane was the only city to record a fall in auction volumes and the clearance rate week-on-week, while year-on-year, all capital cities saw a fall in auction volumes.