With another weekend of good clearance rates (64% according to the REIV) and a good number of sales it would be easy to assume the market has turned and we are on the up and up. Clearance rates have been at or above 59% – 60% for the last few weeks and continually show signs of improvement. This is good news for vendors and with another two weekends to come with nearly 1000 auctions there should be some great buying for purchasers also.
The issue though with looking at only a few weeks or even a couple of months of data is that it shows a very small amount of information and it can be skewed to whichever way you want to look at it. The positive to the ‘good’ clearance rate is the increased number of people looking to purchase and actually purchasing. It is also quite easy to see a 60% clearance rate as 40% of those properties will not sell and with approximately 2000 auctions in the next fortnight, that is nearly 800 properties left sitting on the market.
A 60% average is what we have come to see as a fair market. According to the REIV clearance rates we were averaging around 81% in 2009, 75% in 2010 and 60% in 2011. Currently we are averaging 61% for 2012, though this figure could change with a couple of good weekends.
Overall it does look as the bell has rung for the bottom of the market though there is still some very good buying out there.
Courtney Thursfield
JPP Buyer Advocates