A total of 2,268 homes were taken to auction across the combined capital cities this week— up from 1,976 over the previous week, according to CoreLogic’s recent report.

The results were counted under the last week of auctions before the Easter weekend slowdown. While volumes have risen week-over-week, they are substantially lower than the week prior to Easter 2018 when 3,990 homes were taken to auction— the busiest week for auctions on record.

The recent number of auctions, though, was the second highest so far this year despite remaining well below the week prior to Easter last year.

Preliminary auction clearance rate was at 58.2% across the combined capitals. CoreLogic warned that this would revise lower as the remaining results are collected. The past week recorded a final clearance rate of above 50% for the fourth consecutive week (52.6%). Year-over-year, the clearance rate was recorded at 61.7%.

Nine hundred thirty-nine homes went under the hammer in Melbourne, higher than the previous week’s 892. In comparison, the week prior to Easter 2018 logged 2,071 homes taken to auction across the city.

The preliminary auction clearance rate, meanwhile, was at 54.9% this week—down from 55.4% over the previous week.

Sydney hosted 927 auctions this week with preliminary results returning a 62.9% clearance rate across 577 results.

 Over the previous week, there were 742 auctions across the city, and a final clearance rate of 54.9% was recorded. During the week prior to Easter last year, 1,383 homes taken to auction across NSW’s capital.

Across the smaller auction markets, Perth was the only city to record a fall in auction volume week-over-week. Year-over-year, auction volumes in all capital cities grew except Canberra, where auction volumes were unchanged.