Stormy weather for Brisbane auctions
News Corp Australia Network
Storms wreaked havoc across Brisbane, Logan and the Gold Coast last week and property analysts say even the home auction market took a hit. Homeowner Hulita Manoa’s Logan home was extensive damaged in Tuesday’s storm. Picture: Zak Simmonds
ONE in four Brisbane homes were withdrawn from auction in Brisbane last week, the largest rate of withdrawal since the height of the national pandemic lockdown in 2020, leading to a massive drop in clearance rates that has been blamed largely on severe thunderstorms that tore through the region.
Twenty-one per cent of Brisbane homes that sold in the last quarter of 2021 were listed as auction campaigns compared to Brisbane’s historical average of eight-10 per cent. Picture: David Clark
However not all industry experts blame the weather for the poor performance, with greedy sellers and Covid also thrown into the mix.
It’s still a seller’s market but buyers play an important role in determining a property’s value. Picture: Annette Dew
CoreLogic data released on Monday shows Brisbane’s auction clearance rate has plummeted from 80 per cent to 56 per cent in a week, it’s lowest level since January 2021.
The preliminary data, with 171 auction results analysed from the 220 scheduled auctions in the week ending February 6, shows that 24.6 per cent of all auctions were withdrawn before going under the hammer. This is Brisbane’s highest withdrawal rate since May 2020 when panicked sellers pulled their homes off the market amid ongoing pandemic uncertainty.
“The low clearance rate was largely driven by an above-average number of withdrawals amid a series of storms over the weekend,” the CoreLogic Market Indicator summary said.
CoreLogic head of research Tim Lawless.
CoreLogic research director Tim Lawless explained further: “Because of the spontaneous nature of the weather event, there wasn’t enough time for the auctions to be rescheduled, so they have been withdrawn and postponed,” Mr Lawless said on Monday.
“The withdrawal figure has been amplified due to the storms and the uncertainty.”
Ray White Queensland chief auctioneer Gavin Croft.
While there were no storms in Brisbane on Saturday, Ray White Queensland chief auctioneer Gavin Croft called auctions on Tuesday night when a storm ripped through Pimpama at the northern end of the Gold Coast, cutting power for several hours. The auction event continued under assisted lighting with an 83 per cent clearance rate from 13 auctions.
“Unless a tree goes through a house, it shouldn’t stop an auction,” Mr Croft said.
“Other than having to call auctions in the dark for a while, everything proceeded as usual.”
Mr Croft said the Ray White Group had recorded an unusually high 19 per cent withdrawal rate this year which he puts down to difficulties navigating Covid infections and isolation requirements more than storm activity.
“There has been a noticeable increase throughout January and that is twofold, one is potentially around the storms, but the other one is still Covid, in that people have got an auction organised onsite and someone is in isolation or testing positive and things must change, but potentially those sales were converted into private treaty sales and negotiated from there.”
Ray White Ascot auctioneer Phil Parker has been calling auctions for more than 30 years. Picture: David Clark
Veteran Ray White auctioneer Phil Parker said clearance rates were the measuring stick of the market and he said this year, some sellers had gone ahead of the market, resulting in a failed auction campaign.
“Punters (buyers) are still turning up but I’ve started to notice the sellers … are getting ambitious with their prices and some are a little greedy,’ Mr Parker said.
Large crowds are a common sight, particularly in more affordable suburbs like Wishart in Brisbane’s south. Picture: Annette Dew
“Last year we had a property explosion, everyone was meeting at the same point very quickly and houses were selling.
“This year’s market is just as good as last year but the vendors have gone ahead of it, and that’s typical in real estate, there’s usually a gap between where the sellers and buyers are and every now and then that gap closes.
“The one person who is correct in what the property is worth is the buyer and on Saturday I had between 7 and 33 buyers at every auction.”
Auction volumes in Brisbane are almost three times higher compared to a year ago, CoreLogic data shows, but at the same time the overall listing number is 30 per cent lower.
“Historically, eight-10 per cent of homes sell by auction in Brisbane,” Mr Lawless said.
“Coming through the final quarter of last year that very quickly doubled to 21 per cent and chances are through the early part of this year, it wouldn’t surprise me if it was higher. At the same time overall listings are a third lower and auctions work well when there is competition in the market.”