Domain, majority owned by Nine the publisher of The Australian Financial Review, recorded a preliminary clearance rate of 44.4 per cent compared with 57 per cent a year ago, but from a lower 357 auctions with Sydney at 49 per cent and Melbourne at 44 per cent.
AMP Capital chief economist Shane Oliver, who expects Sydney and Melbourne house prices to fall a further 15 per cent, called the weekend auction results “overall still weak”.
“There was a bit of a bounce in Sydney from December, but I wouldn’t read much into that as listings and reported sold numbers were very low and February tends to see a bounce from December,” Dr Oliver said.
SQM Research’s Louis Christopher also called the results “weak”.
“Clearance rates should be up for the first auctions of the year in the cities today. Seasonally, that is normal for this time of year. Anecdotally, I saw some eager buyers at the properties I attended,” he said.
The first auctions of the year come just ahead of Monday afternoon’s release of Kenneth Hayne’s final report of the banking royal commission and the government’s response and the first meeting of the Reserve Bank on Tuesday to decide whether to adjust the cash rate, which is now 1.5 per cent and hasn’t changed since August 2016.
A survey of economists by the Financial Review suggested no changes for the whole of 2019 with a hike expected in mid-2020.
In its commentary, CoreLogic expected the final clearance rate for the capital cities to come in the low-mid 40 per cent range compared with 62 per cent the same time last year.
“It is important to note, volumes are significantly lower than what we were seeing at the end of last year and clearance rates are generally less indicative over periods of such low activity.
“As the number of auctions held increases over the next few weeks we will be able to get a firmer perspective on auction conditions for 2019,” CoreLogic said.
from Just News Viral http://bit.ly/2MK8CZJ
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