If you’re in the market for a new home, this will come as welcome news.
After years of red-hot conditions that favoured sellers, auction clearance rates are cooling. What’s more, homes are spending longer on the market.
Almost overnight it feels like the property market has swung entirely in buyers’ favour.
Have a look.
Early signs we can’t ignore
The housing market’s early-warning gauge is flashing.
Property research group Cotality is reporting the final auction clearance rate across the combined capitals slipped to 47.3 per cent in the week ending 7 June. It is the second week in a row below 50 per cent, and well below the decade average of 64 per cent.
Brisbane was the shocker. Just 34.1 per cent of auctions cleared. Its weakest result since June 2020, with more than half of all properties passed in. Sydney edged up to 48.9 per cent, Melbourne eased to 47.4 per cent and Adelaide was the best of the majors at 55.7 per cent.
Volumes were also thin over the King’s Birthday long weekend (1,175 auctions, down 55.8 per cent), so this weekend’s rebound to around 2,192 auctions is the real test of buyer appetite.
Cotality links the slide to souring sentiment. The Westpac-Melbourne Institute consumer sentiment index fell almost 3 per cent in June, while its house price expectations measure dropped nearly 15 per cent (more on that below).
The simple takeaway?
When fewer than half the homes taken to auction actually sell, buyers have the whip hand. If you’re bidding, be patient and don’t pay a panic price.
How long are homes taking to sell?
Another early-warning gauge the property market is softening and giving the giving the upper hand to buyers, is how long the typical home sits on the market before it sells.
CommBank’s economists have crunched the Cotality figures (and seasonally adjusted them), and the trend is unmistakable … right across the country, homes are taking longer to shift.
The really telling part is what’s happening in the boom markets. Perth and Brisbane, where homes were practically selling before the “For Sale” sign hit the lawn, have seen selling times suddenly jump. Perth has shot from under a week back up to above three weeks, and Brisbane isn’t far behind. Even Sydney and Melbourne have crept back towards 38 days.
When properties take longer to sell, the power quietly shifts from the seller to the buyer.
They have more room to negotiate, fewer panicked auction-day decisions, and a market that’s clearly come off the boil.
If you’re buying, time is back on your side.
If you’re selling, it pays to be realistic on price. It’s the same story the auction clearance rates are telling us … the heat is coming out of housing.
