Auctions Are Slowing and Stock Is Piling Up. Here's What That Actually Means If You're Buying

Spring is usually when the property market puts on its best show. More homes come up for sale, more buyers turn out on Saturdays, and auctions tend to be the busiest of the year. This spring looks a little different. New figures out today show the national auction clearance rate has fallen to 48.2 per cent, its lowest point in three months, and the number of homes sitting unsold on the market has climbed sharply. If you're in the middle of house hunting, or thinking about starting, it's worth understanding what's actually going on before you read too much into either the gloomy headlines or the idea that prices are collapsing.

What the numbers actually show

According to data from Cotality reported by ABC News, around 1,223 auctions were held across the capital cities last week, well down on the same week a year ago. Sydney and Melbourne have been the biggest drag on the national result, with Melbourne auction volumes down 45.6 per cent on a year ago. At the same time, the number of homes sitting unsold nationally has reached about 276,000, up 21.6 per cent on last year, including more properties that have been on the market for six months or longer without finding a buyer. Distressed sales, where a vendor is selling under financial pressure rather than by choice, rose to 4,872 across the country in September, a 29 per cent increase on the same month last year.

Cotality's Tim Lawless put it simply: Sydney and Melbourne have been dragging the national figures down. SQM Research's Louis Christopher offered a sharper read on why, pointing out that in Sydney fewer vendors are listing than a year ago, yet total stock on the market is still up almost a fifth. His conclusion is that this looks like a demand problem rather than too many sellers flooding the market at once.

Why homes are taking longer to sell

A separate Cotality release from mid September backs this up from another angle. It found that pass ins, where a property goes to auction but fails to reach its reserve price, are becoming more common than outright withdrawals. In other words, vendors are still bringing their homes to market, but close to half aren't meeting their reserve on the day. Cotality's own assessment is that this is shifting negotiating power toward buyers, with more vendors willing to move to a private sale and negotiate after an unsuccessful auction rather than holding firm on price.

None of this means the market has stalled everywhere, or that every seller is desperate. Conditions vary by suburb and price point, and a slower clearance rate in Sydney and Melbourne doesn't describe what's happening in Perth or Adelaide, where listings have risen for different reasons. But the broad pattern, softer demand meeting a growing pool of listings, holds across most of the data we're seeing right now.

What this means if you're the one looking to buy

For buyers, a slower market like this one generally means less pressure to make a snap decision on auction day, more room to negotiate on price and conditions, and genuinely more properties to choose from. It's a meaningfully different experience to the fear of missing out that characterised the market at its peak.

The flip side is that it still pays to be prepared before you start seriously looking, because being ready to act is what lets you take advantage of a buyer's market once the right property turns up.

Getting your finance sorted before you need it

Part of being prepared is understanding how a lender actually works out what you can borrow, which tends to look more conservative than people expect right now. Lenders are required to test whether you could still afford your repayments if interest rates rose further, by assessing your application against a rate three percentage points above the loan's actual interest rate. That's a requirement set by APRA, the regulator that oversees Australian banks, and it applies across the board rather than being something an individual lender can waive. It's a sensible safeguard, but it does mean your borrowing power can look lower than the interest rate you'd actually be paying might suggest.

Understanding that buffer, and getting a realistic read on your borrowing power before you're standing in front of a property you love, is exactly the kind of groundwork that turns a slower, more negotiable market into an opportunity rather than a source of stress.

The bottom line

A clearance rate below 50 per cent and record stock levels are a sign of a market that has shifted toward buyers, not evidence of a crash. If you've been waiting for conditions where you don't feel rushed into a decision, this looks closer to that than the market has been in some time. The practical step is making sure your own finances are ready to move when you find the right place, rather than trying to time the market perfectly.

Figures in this article are drawn from Cotality and SQM Research data reported by ABC News on 5 October 2026, and from a Cotality final clearance rates release published 17 September 2026.

This article is general information only and does not take into account your personal objectives, financial situation or needs. Please speak with a Claremont Financial broker before making any borrowing decision.