NSW set to take auction capital crown as Victorian buyer sentiment drops to lowest in Australia

Victoria and Melbourne have long held the title of Australia’s auction capital but NSW and Sydney are now looking set to snatch the crown. Pictures: Vince Caligiuri/Getty Images/Rohan Kelly.

Victoria is set to lose its crown as Australia’s action capital to New South Wales.

For years, Melbourne and surrounds have been the nation’s auction powerhouse, dominating the number of properties going under the hammer every week.

But since 2025 began, NSW has knocked the Education State off its throne several times.

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In January, a three-week stretch saw the Sydney Opera House’s home state host more auctions than its southern counterpart, including one week where Sydney topped Melbourne by more than 100 auctions.

But Victoria is not backing down without a fight as experts predict that the state will triumph to retain its auction title long-term – despite having less auctions scheduled than New South Wales in coming weeks.

Realestate.com.au’s research arm PropTrack is expecting 509 auctions in Melbourne and beyond this week and 518 in Sydney and surrounds.

Next week, there’s 833 homes set to go under the hammer in Victoria and 840 in New South Wales.

PropTrack senior economist Anne Flaherty says that an October survey showed that 14 per cent of Victorian homeowners believed it was a good time to sell, compared to 22 per cent of NSW owners, 36 per cent in QLD, 41 per cent in South Australia and 56 per cent in Western Australia.

The week after is expected to have 863 Victorian auctions and 884 in the Sydney Opera House’s home state.

PropTrack senior economist Anne Flaherty said the numbers pointed to New South Wales having stronger seller sentiment than Victoria.

“This is slightly surprising, because we typically see Victoria as the auction capital of the country,” Ms Flaherty said.

This four-bedroom house at 24 Keerok Ave, Seaford, will be auctioned on Saturday with $900,000-$990,000 price hopes. It has been renovated by the owners, a young family.

In October, PropTrack research found that Victoria had the nation’s weakest seller sentiment with just 14 per cent of property owners surveyed believing it was a good time to sell – likely as a result of underperforming home prices in 2024.

“I think we could see that start to turn around later in this year, but it certainly seems like, compared to the rest of the country, the seller sentiment tends to be stronger in other places,”

Ms Flaherty said.

Melbourne’s median home price, including houses, units and apartments, rose 0.2 per cent to $778,000 in March, after reaching $774,000 in February.

More than 45 groups have inspected this circa-1910 weatherboard house at 10 Holywood Grove, Carnegie, that will be auctioned on Saturday with a $1.8m-$1.95m asking range.

A mixture of first-home buyers and investors have shown interest in this three-bedroom house at 14 Hinchinbrook Close, Caroline Springs, which has been renovated by its owners.

Real Estate Institute of Victoria director Adrian Butera, who is also a managing director at Compton Green in Melbourne’s inner west, said that much like the AFL, auctions worked well across Australia but remained a Victorian institution.

“I don’t think a couple of weekends will be enough to lose or take away the crown, we’ll let them have it for a weeks,” Mr Butera said.

“Victoria will continue to hold onto the auction title, there’s no doubt in my mind.”

He has noticed rising interstate interest in Victorian homes, including through buyers’ advocates.

“Any suburbs that have a sub-$1m median house price will see investors and buyers active,” he said.

“For example, a period house in Footscray or West Footscray, there’s not a lot of them but they are there – you show that to a Sydney buyer and that’s unbelievably good value.”

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