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Melbourne is set for a significantly quieter weekend of auctions as sellers seek to avoid the clash with the AFL Grand Final.
“This weekend the Melbourne auction market pauses for the ultimate distraction of the AFL Grand Final,” Andrew Wilson, senior economist at Australian Property Monitors has told The Adviser.
According to APM data just 46 properties are scheduled to go under the hammer compared to 865 last weekend.
Although auction numbers are small this weekend they are still higher than the same weekends last year when 34 properties were listed for sale by auction.
“The rising trend in auction numbers has been apparent over recent months as sellers unsurprisingly move to take advantage of a strengthening local housing market,” Mr Wilson said.
2,843 properties have been listed for sale over the past month in Melbourne which is 22 percent higher than the 2332 listed over the same period last year.
“Housing market activity in Melbourne is clearly intensifying with last weekend the city recording a strong auction clearance rate of 80.1 percent,” he said.
“Auction clearance rates have now averaged 75.4 percent over the past month which is well ahead of the 57.7 percent averaged over the same period a year ago.”
While Sydney will host another strong weekend of auctions this weekend with 596 properties scheduled to go under the hammer.
2003 homes have been listed for auction in Sydney over the past four weeks which is 26.5 per cent higher than the 1,584 listed over the same period a year ago.
“Sellers are engaging the housing market in increasingly high numbers to take advantage of one the strongest weekend auction markets that Sydney has ever recorded,” Mr Wilson said.
“Last weekend reported another extraordinarily high auction clearance rate of 86 per cent to make it now 10 out of the last 11 weeks above 80 percent.”
Mr Wilson believes Sydney will almost certainly record its highest ever auction clearance rate for September and may even break the all-time monthly record set in April 2002.