The Spring selling season is off to a good start with auction clearance rates above 70%.

The national preliminary auction clearance rate last week was 71.2%, the strongest start to the spring selling season since the start of the pandemic.

Adelaide had the highest clearance rate last week of 82.8% followed by Sydney, 73.8%, Melbourne, 69.3%, Brisbane, 66.7% and Canberra, 63.6%.

SQM Research managing director Louis Christopher says the results show confidence is recovering as more properties are listed.

“During 2022, people were quite reluctant to list during the downturn, but the pick-up in buyer demand has meant the spring selling season vendors have come out more confident,” he says.

Ray White chief economist Nerida Conisbee says bidding was stronger than they had anticipated during the past weekend.

“We didn’t necessarily expect that the level of bidding activity would be as high as it was and that properties would sell so easily, because financing is still really expensive,” she says.