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The number of home owners withdrawing their properties from auction is growing, as nervous sellers grapple with a fast-changing property market.
The percentage of auctions withdrawn has jumped over the past month, Domain data shows, and auctioneers say unrealistic sellers looking for higher prices are fuelling the trend, while opportunistic buyers want to nab a bargain.
On the last weekend in May, 21.9 per cent of Sydney’s scheduled auctions were withdrawn. This rose to 30.9 per cent by a week ago and a preliminary 39.5 per cent on the weekend.
In Melbourne, 9.6 per cent of the scheduled auctions were withdrawn on the last weekend in May, rising to 15.4 per cent a week ago and 16.4 per cent on the weekend.
The latest withdrawal figures are likely to be revised lower as auction results are finalised, but it shows a significant shift in seller behaviour, experts say.
Domain’s chief residential economist Dr Nicola Powell said she expected Sydney’s withdrawals to settle around 25-30 per cent after the weekend.
It comes as Sydney and Melbourne’s house prices continue to fall, as rising interest rates, the cost of living and changes to taxes on property investors take hold of the market, spooking buyers who can no longer borrow as much money as last year.
Sydney’s preliminary auction clearance rate last week was 49 per cent, while Melbourne’s was 55 per cent, on Domain figures.
The difference in withdrawn auction numbers was stark, Powell said, especially in Sydney, where they had jumped from below 10 per cent at the end of January.
“We are in a much different market than we were at the beginning of the year,” Powell said. “I think this is definitely showing a changed attitude from sellers.”
While some sellers would take lower prices, others were still expecting a price similar to the peak. Many were unwilling to let their house pass in at auction as it added a stigma to the property, Powell said.
“Some sellers might be testing the market. If they don’t get the price they’re looking for then they simply won’t go ahead with an auction,” she said.
In Melbourne, Barry Plant’s chief auctioneer, James Hatzimoisis, said figures across the group showed around 18 per cent of auctions were being withdrawn over the past few weeks.
Most are being withdrawn a week before the scheduled auction, with vendors making tough decisions, either not selling at all or selling for a lower price, including via private treaty.
“The vendors that don’t have to sell and are not getting the price feedback they want are staying put,” Hatzimoisis said.
Buyers are looking to upgrade as prices fall, some putting the money they planned to use for an investment property into a bigger and better new home for themselves, Hatzimoisis said, as changes to capital gains tax and negative gearing continued to have an impact.
“They’re thinking ‘I will put that money into a better home and upgrade the family home and that will become my nest egg in the future when I retire’,” he said.
Hatzimoisis said agents had seen more buyers go through the process of getting building inspections done and going through the paperwork, but not bidding at auction.
“Some are trying to be opportunistic to let the property pass in and get a better deal,” he said.
Woodards Essendon director and auctioneer Brad Teal agreed, saying buyers were making lowball offers on properties to try and take advantage of falling prices, while sellers were struggling to accept prices had to come down.
“The buyers are sensing that tectonic shift towards their benefit,” Teal said.
The number of buyers had fallen, some holding back to see what happens to house prices, and get more clarity on changes to investment property taxes.
“Our typical Saturday might be to do eight open for inspections and there would be four people at one, eight at another and none at the next, and we had up to 40 people to engage with on a Monday … now we have eight people,” Teal said. “It’s toughened right up.”
In Sydney, Cooley Auction managing director and auctioneer Damien Cooley said his company’s figures showed 29 per cent of their 221 auctions in Sydney’s metro area in June had been withdrawn.
The number of bidders had fallen across the year, from 4.3 on average in June 2025, to 2.3 in June this year.
Cooley said the properties that were selling at auction, with multiple bidders, were good-quality properties that had motivated sellers willing to meet the market as it slowed.
“I think there’s a lot of owners right now not coming to the market or taking their property off the market,” he said.
