Clearance rates fell across the country, including in Sydney and Melbourne in September, new data shows.
Melbourne’s auction clearance rate fell by 1.6 percentage points to 64 per cent in September, while Sydney was down by 1 percentage point to 67.4 per cent. “This is what we were anticipating in early spring,” Powell said. “We started to see listings pick up in late winter and that’s because we’d seen such strong and persistent outcomes at auction over the past few months.”
He said vendors were being more realistic about prices, as they dealt with a market where interest rates rises had cut the amount of money buyers could borrow.Credit:“Most of what we have on the market, the vendors have a good sense of the moodiness of the market,” Ward said. “Some things are taking a little bit longer to sell, like six or seven weeks instead of three to four weeks, but it’s still been beneficial to my owners.
“There’s no doubt that part of the reason the clearance rate has fallen is volume and because buyers have more choice.”