Auction listings are in decline and clearance rates struggling amid a fresh outbreak of coronavirus in Victoria.
Across the country this weekend, auction listings fell to 1185, down from 1485 the week prior, with clearance rates hovering around the 65 per cent mark.
AMP Capital chief economist spoke to Australian Financial Review.
“It’s better than it was at the height of the lockdown back in April, but [the results] are still pretty soft,” he said.
“The listings are up from the very low points but the last week they have actually declined, particularly in Melbourne.”
“It may be because the lockdowns are starting to impact.”
“And even though the clearance rates picked up a little bit on where they were a week before, they are still fairly soft once you allow for the fact the final result will turn out to be 4 or 5 percentage points lower.”
Here in Melbourne there 439 homes that went under the hammer on the weekend and we recorded an auction clearance rate of 64.3 per cent.
Buyer’s agent David Morrell said a lot of sales were happening off-market ahead of listed auction dates.
“It is happening, but it’s all going off-market,” he told AFR.
“I’ve got a vested interest to talk the market down, but it hasn’t [gone down]. Anything good and you’ve got to compete for it.”
Despite this, there’s plenty of uncertainty lingering in the market with federal government stimulus measures set to be withdrawn over the coming months.
