VIC Excerpt from the 2020 August Market report

Melbourne hosted 298 auctions over the second weekend in August. While the city's auction volume was down from the preceding weekend, the share of successful sales increased significantly from 55.1% to 73%.

Eliza Owen, head of residential research at CoreLogic, said the lower withdrawal rates in the city relative to the previous lockdown in April could have contributed to the higher clearance rates.

"The preliminary collection indicates only 18% of Melbourne auctions were withdrawn from the market the week, compared with a peak of 65% through the second week of April," she said.

Melbourne's Inner Region was the busiest of the sub-regions, hosting 47 auctions. However, the region with the highest share of successful transactions was Inner South, where 85.3% of the 41 auctions pushed through a sale.

Owen said the adoption of online sales methods made real estate agents and auctioneers more prepared to pivot towards a virtual auction environment.

"Furthermore, despite high levels of uncertainty, it is also interesting to see how quickly the auction market has rebounded as auction resumed across Victoria," she said. "If the last phase of lockdowns was anything to go by, the auction market and, more broadly, housing market activity, is likely to recover as restrictions are eased or lifted."

Source: CoreLogic, August 2020