Accusations of Underreporting of Failed Auctions in Australia

Auction rates fudged by failed campaigns

EMBARRASSED agents are covering up a growing failure to sell homes at auction by not telling reporting bodies about their failed campaigns.
Figures compiled by research agencies Australian Property Monitors and Residex over the past three weeks show that between 10 per cent and almost 50 per cent of auction results across Sydney went unrecorded.

Cooley Auctions had a 51 per cent clearance rate for its 76 auctions last Saturday, the busiest day of the 2011 selling season so far, compared to APM's 65 per cent clearance rate for the day.
"Ours is 100 per cent accurate as we represented 12.2 per cent of the market on that day, so I find it hard to believe there's a 14 per cent difference across the market," Mr Cooley said.
Cooley Auctions also recorded a lower clearance rate of 55 per cent for the entire month of February than APM's 62 per cent.

The numbers do seem to have made a remarkable recovery from the long slow slide last year.