The March quarter was an interesting time for the for the property sales market and for Australian auctions.

According to CoreLogic, from January to March 2020, the clearance rate across all combined capital cities came in at 62.5 per cent across 18,902 auctions. This was down from 70.3 per cent across 26,923 auctions over the previous quarter.

Sydney showed a clearance rate of 66.2% from 7,135 auctions.

Melbourne showed a clearance rate of 63.8% from 8,882 auctions.

Brisbane showed a clearance rate of 41.7% from 1,106 auctions.

Interestingly though, this was higher than the March quarter last year when 49.9 per cent of 14,647 auctions were successful.

The clear uncertainties created by COVID-19, along with tightening restrictions and the banning of onsite and in-room auctions, has seen clearance rates drop over the past month, with the final week of March seeing a clearance rate of 37.3 per cent across the combined capitals.

February also took a hit with weekly clearance rates in the low 70 per cent range for the final three weeks of the month.

With restrictions surrounding auctions looking to be continued, the coming months may see fewer auctions than normal.

In these trying times, vendors will have the option convert their listing to a private treaty method, while others could potentially take their property off the market all together until confidence and conditions get better.