The australian property market is cooling gradually due to a reduction in the number of prospective buyers and some owners choosing to withdraw properties for sale to avoid aborted auctions with no bids.
Sydney saw 28 percent of properties listed for auction withdrawn last week.
That was the most in more than two years, according to the data from property service firm CoreLogic.
In fact, more vendors may pivot toward selling homes by private treaty rather than by auctions, which does not work well for most people amid property downturns, said Louis Christopher, founder of real estate-geared SQM Research.
The latest auction results indicate the market may be heading toward an "ongoing downturn, not an outright crash," Christopher pointed out.
So vendors must be prepared to see their homes sell at below-market prices.
Although many auctions due to be held in Sydney have been canceled, the preliminary clearance last week rose for the first time in five weeks, up 50 basis points to 55.9 percent.
Compared to the previous week when 795 auctions were held, last week's auction activity was up 13 percent.
Yet that was down 17.2 percent on 12 months ago when 77.5 percent of auctions reported a positive result, CoreLogic noted.
Melbourne recorded the busiest auction week among state capitals. Its preliminary clearance rate rose above 60 percent for the first time in four weeks to reach 61 percent.
Auction activity across the smaller capitals last week was in line with volumes recorded during the previous week, CoreLogic said.
Adelaide was the busiest among the smaller capitals, hosting 173 auctions.
It was followed by Brisbane and Canberra with 161 and 121 auctions respectively.
A similar pattern was seen in clearance rates, with Adelaide recording the highest preliminary rate (68.8 percent) followed by Brisbane (65.4 percent) and Canberra (62 percent).
Across all the Australia state capitals, auction volumes dropped by 6.7 percent to 2,358, but 55.9 percent of auctions reported successful results.
