November has been the biggest real estate month for the Australian Capital Territory (ACT)'s property market, as it recorded the highest monthly auction volume of the year.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that there were 509 auctions in the Canberra region in November, 62% higher than the 314 held in October.
While the November clearance rate was lower than the preceding month's 65.9%, data scientist Nicola Powell said this was due to the higher volume of auctions.
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"We had such a high level of scheduled auctions that it impacted the overall clearance rate, but even though they have been lower than previous months they are still tracking rather robustly," Powell noted, stressing that the high auction turnout was the result of the capital city's strong market – a notion underscored by CoreLogic's latest monthly figures, which show that Canberra has the biggest monthly property price expansion at 0.9%.
Powell mentioned that historically the month of November has the highest number of new listings for all capital cities, as sellers usually want to secure a sale before the Christmas shutdown and buyers looking to snap up a new home before the start of the new year.
1,443 houses and 1,248 units were on the ACT market last month, a slight increase from last year's 1,356 homes and 1186 units.
However, Powell warned that auctions may come to a halt as the new year kicks in – consider January 2017, when only 20 residential auctions were recorded in the ACT.
"For people that have to sell in January, there's a lower level of auctions, so there's less competition and that's a great thing for a seller going to market," Powell said, "a lot of buyers in the market will be taking holidays at that time of the year, which is why traditionally we don't see a lot of vendors going to market at that particular time."
Collections: Mortgage News
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