Auction clearance rates at the weekend dived to their lowest levels this year, with volumes down 40 per cent on the past week, but Saturday’s federal election had minimal effect compared with the election in 2019.
Ray White Group managing director Dan White said elections did not seem to disrupt property markets as they once did, citing the lack of impact “the last few” state polls have had on real estate sales.
Mr White said while auction volumes were lower than recent averages, the absence of policies, such as Labor’s 2019 plan to limit negative gearing, meant buyers had no major concerns.
“It was quite a relaxing campaign for those in the industry compared to last time,” he said. “I thought the results were solid, not what they were last November, but on any reasonable basis, good numbers.
“The vast majority of auctions had good bidding. It was certainly much better than the last federal election. We mapped our results this weekend to the 2019 election and results on all metrics were up.
“The numbers show the property market wasn’t that interested or impacted by the election. We saw that all the way through the campaign.
“Last time there were a lot of potential shocks. The Labor policies around negative gearing and capital gains tax were concerning for a lot of people.
“They were definitely clouds on the market and this time I think, from a property point of view, I didn’t see any major differences when it came to property policy.”
CoreLogic reported that auction volumes in all markets except for Perth were relatively low over the past week at 1676 properties, but significantly up on 2019 election week when 930 homes were taken to auction.
Next week, it said there are more than 3000 properties scheduled for auction, the highest level since the week before Easter.
“The combined capitals preliminary clearance rate slipped to its lowest levels so far this year with 62.9 per cent of the results collected so far returning a positive result,” CoreLogic said.
“This time last year 75.6 per cent of auctions held last year were successful.”
Clearance rates were highest in the smaller markets with Canberra leading the way at 76 per cent, followed by Adelaide (68 per cent) and Brisbane (63 per cent).
More homes went to auction in Melbourne than any other market with 709 properties going under the hammer, 62 per cent of which sold.
In Sydney, auction withdrawal rates were again high, with around one in five homes withdrawn for the fifth consecutive week, and had a preliminary clearance rate of 61.7 per cent.
Plus Agency said it saw the election as an opportunity and exchanged contracts on more than $60 million of apartments at the Chapman Gardens development in Castle Hill on Saturday.
This article is from Australian Financial Review, please click the following link for the original article: https://www.afr.com/property/residential/property-sales-dive-on-election-weekend-20220522-p5angg
