What is auction clearance rate?
Clearance rate is the percentage of auctioned properties that sold (under the hammer, pre-auction, or post-auction same day) divided by total auctions held — Australia's national average sits around 60-70% in a balanced market.
Auction clearance rate is the leading indicator real estate analysts use to gauge market momentum. It's calculated weekly as: (properties that SOLD) ÷ (properties that went to auction), expressed as a percentage. CoreLogic and Domain publish the figures Monday morning for the previous Saturday's auctions.
Rule of thumb interpretation: clearance above 75% signals a hot/seller's market (FOMO bidding, premiums above reserve); 65-75% is balanced; below 60% is a cooling/buyer's market (reserves not being met, properties passing in).
Two caveats: (1) reported clearance rates exclude auctions where no result was reported — Saturday-night clearance rates are often revised down by 5-10 percentage points as late-reported 'passed in' results trickle in; (2) auction clearance is much more meaningful in VIC and NSW (where 30-40% of sales go to auction) than QLD/WA/SA where most sales are private treaty.
clearance rate · auction results · auction success rate
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General information only — not personal financial advice. Verified against https://ratesniffers.com.au/glossary on 2026-06-01.