The Sydney and Melbourne property markets are showing early signs of ending their steep slides, with a strong bounce in auction clearance rates on the first Saturday after the federal election.
Preliminary figures from CoreLogic show that 69.9 per cent of homes that went under the hammer in Sydney found a buyer, while 62.9 per cent of auctions in Melbourne cleared.
Those figures will be revised lower once extra results are submitted by agents, but Westpac senior economist Matthew Hassan expects the final result to come in about 65 per cent for Sydney and 60 per cent for Melbourne — the highest rate since April last year.
"Demand has clearly seen an initial boost from the clearer prospect of interest rate cuts and the removal of uncertainty around housing related tax policy following the Coalition's re-election," Mr Hassan wrote in a note.
"Prospective changes to loan serviceability assessments have likely given support as well."
Last week, bank regulator APRA flagged a change in the way banks assess home loan applications, which would result in people being able to borrow larger sums.