According to CoreLogic data, just 672 capital city homes were scheduled for auction during Easter week, significantly lower than the previous week’s 3,066 and 64.6 per cent below the same week last year when 1,900 properties went under the hammer.
Sydney was the busiest auction market despite the holiday slowdown, with 384 homes scheduled for auction.
This represented a decrease from the 1,282 auctions held the previous week.
During Easter last year, Sydney hosted 414 auctions.
Melbourne’s auction activity experienced an even more dramatic decline, with only 146 homes scheduled for auction during Easter week.
This marked a steep drop from the 1,382 auctions held the week prior and the 906 conducted during the same period last year.
Last Easter saw 283 Melbourne homes taken to auction.
Among the smaller capital cities, Brisbane led with 60 scheduled auctions, closely followed by Adelaide with 58. Canberra had 23 auctions planned, while Perth had just one.
Tasmania had no auctions scheduled for the week.
The week prior to Easter saw the busiest auction activity since late October 2024, with 3,066 homes taken to auction across the combined capitals.
However, the clearance rate dipped below 60 per cent for the second time in three weeks, coming in at 59.9 per cent.
“The combined capital city clearance rate dipped below the 60 per cent mark last week for the second time in three weeks, coming in at 59.9%, down from 61.8% over the previous week and 65.2% this time last year,” Caitlin Fono, Research Analyst at CoreLogic Australia said.
Melbourne’s pre-Easter auction week was particularly active with 1,382 homes taken to auction, making it the second busiest auction week of the year so far.
The city recorded a clearance rate of 62.2 per cent, slightly down from 64.1 per cent the previous week.
Sydney’s auction market was equally robust before the Easter break, hosting 1,282 auctions, its busiest week since Easter 2022.
However, the harbour city’s clearance rate remained below 60 per cent for the third consecutive week at 58.5 per cent.
Looking ahead, approximately 1,050 capital city homes were scheduled for auction in the week following Easter, signalling an expected rebound in market activity.