Melbourne’s auction clearance rates on the weekend fell to their lowest level in five years.
On the weekend our city recorded a clearance rate of 60.7 per cent and for the weekend prior, the auction clearance rate has been revised down to below 60 per cent – to 58.9 per cent.
It is the second time this year the auction clearance rate has dipped below 60 per cent and it shows the property market is increasingly a buyers' market.
There are now less buyers showing up to auctions and more properties are being sold in private negotiations.
Kirk Stafford from Stafford Property Advisory discussed the current property market in Melbourne when he spoke to The Age.
“No one is going to argue the market is cooling,” he said.
“There was a fever in the market last year that is gone.”
Mr Stafford said the absence of that ‘fever’ in the market meant buyers were not panicking anymore and were more measured.
According to buyers’ advocates it’s the entry-level properties and top-end homes that are attracting the most competition.
Numbers are strong of first-home buyers attending property auctions for homes under $750,000, which is the cut-off for stamp duty concessions.
All eyes are now on whether the banking royal commission will further weaken things in the housing market.
“If then banks tighten lending practices, that’s possibly going to restrict the flow of funds,” Mr Stafford said.
“There’s a question mark over what impact that will have.”
