Australia’s capital cities have returned the highest combined clearance rate in a month, but the result should be taken with a grain of salt after auction volumes experienced their annual downturn.

According to CoreLogic RP Data, the preliminary combined capital clearance rate for last week was 78.1%, the highest it’s been since the first week of June, but auction volumes were significantly down  due to a combination of the winter weather and school holidays.

The lower volumes saw Sydney’s clearance rate receive a slight bump, with a preliminary rate of 84.5% recorded from 711 auctions, compared to the preceding week’s 82% from 896 auctions.

Conditions in NSW capital continue to outstrip where they were this time last year when Sydney saw a clearance rate of 72.4% from 597 auctions.

Sydney’s strongest performing sub-region last week was the Sutherland region, where 92.8% of reported auctions were successful, followed by the Inner South West (92.1%), and the Baulkham Hills and Hawkesbury region (91.6%).

Melbourne on the other hand saw a dip in its clearance despite auction volumes dropping by almost half.

The Victorian capital’s clearance rate for last week was recorded at 76.7% from 617 auctions, down from the previous week’s 78.5% from 1,007 auctions.

Melbourne’s sub regions had a varied weekend, the Outer East region led way with a clearance rate of 93.7%, while the next best was the Inner East with 85.7%.

Brisbane saw a marked increase in its clearance rate, up to 68.9% from 46.2% the previous week while the number of auctions fell from 140 to 113.

Adelaide had perhaps the best performance of the week, with its clearance rate jumping from 69.9% to 75.4% despite almost no change in the number of auctions in the city.

Perth had a down week, with only 20% of its auctions proving to be successful, down from 68% for the preceding week and the 50% seen this time last year.

Canberra returned a clearance rate of 75% from its 57 auctions.