{"id":35539,"date":"2026-06-21T10:34:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T10:34:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/35539\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T10:34:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T10:34:23","slug":"auction-clearance-rates-fall-to-lowest-level-since-pandemic-reflecting-lack-of-confidence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/35539\/","title":{"rendered":"Auction clearance rates fall to lowest level since pandemic, reflecting ‘lack of confidence’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Auction clearance rates have hit levels not seen since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, falling below 50 per cent over the past week.<\/p>\n

The weighted average for auction clearance rates across Australia was 47 per cent.<\/p>\n

It was the first time since April 2020 that they had dropped under 50 per cent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And once the data is finalised, the numbers could be even lower, according to Tim Lawless, research director with information services company Cotality.<\/p>\n

“Probably seeing the final clearance rate around the low-to-mid 40 per cent range, which again we haven’t seen since the initial lockdowns of the global pandemic,” Mr Lawless said.\"A<\/p>\n

The cost of living, particularly in Sydney, is a major NSW election issue (ABC\/Unsplash: Daniel Chen )<\/p>\n

Last week in Sydney, 166 auctions were withdrawn \u2014 the largest number out of the capital cities, according to Cotality’s data.<\/p>\n

Only 225 out of 645 total auctions were cleared.<\/p>\n

There were a lot of factors driving the low clearance rates, Mr Lawless said.<\/p>\n

“We have seen a recent acceleration in the downwards trend, but we were seeing clearance rates coming down in line with higher interest rates with a crisis in confidence amid the Iran war and higher inflation,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s fair to say that, post-budget, we’ve probably seen a further blow to confidence that is seeing clearance rates fall even further.”\"The<\/p>\n

The RBA kept rates unchanged at its June meeting. (ABC News: Eric Hao Zheng)<\/p>\n

Last week, the Reserve Bank kept interest rates on hold at 4.35 per cent, after three rate increases earlier this year.<\/p>\n

The decision came after recent data showed that Australia’s economy had lost momentum and that unemployment had risen.<\/p>\n

Is this the tax hill Albanese and Chalmers want to die on?<\/a><\/p>\n

Two questions hang in the air above the now decaying federal budget, like condors waiting for carrion.<\/p>\n

There is a “lack of vendor confidence” in testing the market, according to Mr Lawless.<\/p>\n

“I think absolutely, we should expect there’s going to be a further loss of momentum in the pace of growth in housing values,” Mr Lawless said.<\/p>\n

He said people looking to sell their homes needed to be “quite realistic” about what the market would be willing to pay.<\/p>\n

“For buyers, they’re back in the driver’s seat in many ways; they’ve got more stock to choose from,” he said.<\/p>\n

“There’s clearly less urgency in the market, and they can negotiate harder, so it is very much a buyer’s market now in most markets.”<\/p>\n

Home owners see equity surge despite rising interest rates<\/a><\/p>\n

Australian home owners now have the protection of a “financial shield” in uncertain times but there is a widening the gap between established owners and aspiring first home buyers, Domain says.<\/p>\n

Sydney and Melbourne housing values have been falling since late last year, with mid-size capitals also losing momentum, Mr Lawless said.<\/p>\n

“The last four weeks, Adelaide home values are only up 0.3 per cent \u2014 that’s the lowest we’ve seen in more than a year,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Brisbane’s up half a per cent in four weeks.<\/p>\n

“Perth’s now up 0.9 per cent, which is still a really strong rate of growth, but it’s less than a third of what it was at the end of last year.”<\/p>\n

A minimum 30 per cent tax on capital gains will be introduced from July 2027, while negative gearing on residential property will be restricted to new builds.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Auction clearance rates have hit levels not seen since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, falling below 50…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35540,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[17081,25020,3549,3545,1765,12123,247],"class_list":["post-35539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sydney","tag-auction","tag-clearance","tag-cotality","tag-housing","tag-interest-rates","tag-rates","tag-sydney"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}