Aussie auction action has heated up to near-record levels, with one Covid-hit city roaring back to life.
Aussie homes are going under the hammer at astonishing rates, with one city roaring back to life after months of Covid-induced hibernation, new data shows.
CoreLogic on Monday reported 4136 homes were taken to auction across the capital cities last week – the second busiest week since the company’s records began in 2008.
The previous week was the record breaker, when 4251 auctions were held.
It was a completely different story this time last year, when just 2085 homes were taken to auction across Australia’s cities.
Melbourne had its third busiest week this year, with 1889 homes taken to auction – almost half of the total for the capital cities and a huge jump from just 899 for the previous corresponding period.
Nationally, the median price for houses was a staggering $1.21m and $767,500 for units.
No surprises that Sydney was by far the most expensive, with the median house price hitting an eye-watering $1.68m and $970,000 for apartments.
The success rates were wildly varied, with 82 per cent of Canberra auctions resulting in a sale, while isolated Perth only recorded a 43.5 per cent clearance rate.
There were just five auctions held in Tasmania and only one was successful, although only three results have been captured so far.
Property market observers continue to predict a substantial cooling in prices after a whopping 22 per cent surge this year, with many being priced out amid wage growth of just 2.2 per cent.
“It takes eight years to save for a deposit in Sydney and seven years in Melbourne,” AMP Capital chief economist Shane Oliver said last week.
“This is now squeezing out first home buyers yet again (who have seen their share of new housing finance fall from 25 per cent to 18 per cent since December) and increasingly existing owners looking to trade up are being squeezed out as well.”
Dr Oliver tipped a 5 per cent price rise next year, followed by a fall of 5-10 per cent in 2023.
“The puff is coming out of the property market,” he said.
There were five reasons to expect a slowing in average home price growth next year, he said, with a peak being reached “sometime in the second half”.
These are worsening affordability, increasing supply, rising interest rates, tightening of lending criteria and a rotation in spending away from housing back towards services as reopening occurs – Omicron variant permitting, Dr Oliver said.
National Australia Bank expects a rise in values of about 5 per cent next year, while ANZ has tipped just over 6 per cent, followed by a fall of about 4 per cent in 2023.
Originally published as Second busiest week for auctions since CoreLogic data began, Melbourne roars back to life as Sydney prices stagger
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