Falling auction numbers and strong buyer demand have lifted clearance rates to a 14-month high and pushed housing prices higher.
In the week to Sunday, 77.8 per cent of auctions in Australia's mainland state capitals ended with a sale, the highest clearance rate since June 2015, according to figures from property analytics firm CoreLogic.
And three of the five mainland capital cities recorded price rises enough to outweigh a small fall in Adelaide and a more than one per cent drop in Perth, and to lift the five-city average by 0.1 per cent.
There were 1,444 auctions listed for auction last week, down by 32 per cent from the corresponding week of 2015, when the clearance rate was 74.6 per cent.
"The strong trend in auction results over recent months has been achieved on falling auction volumes, suggesting the buyer demand is outweighing the supply of homes being taken to auction," CoreLogic said.
The high national average for auction clearance rates was driven by the two major markets.
"Sydney's preliminary clearance rate broke the 80 per cent mark this week, with 81.6 per cent of auction results collected so far being positive, while Melbourne was virtually at an 80 per cent clearance rate (79.9 per cent) based on the early results," CoreLogic said.
The small rise in average prices in the past week meant annual growth in the five-city average slowed to 5.9 per cent, the figures showed.
That was the first time under six per cent for nearly three years and well below the annual rate of 11.3 per cent recorded this time last year.
