The Australian real estate market recorded its highest clearance rate of the spring selling season when nearly 80 per cent of all houses listed for auction in the capital cities sold at the weekend.

Figures from data group ­CoreLogic show 2246 auctions were held across the country, with the most taking place in Melbourne.

The number was up sharply from the 872 a week earlier, when football finals and the long weekend prompted vendors to hold their properties back.

This weekend’s 79.2 per cent success rate was well up on the same time last year, when the clearance rate was 69.5 per cent but from a higher level of supply — 3016 properties.

CoreLogic auction comment­ator Kevin Brogan said the clearance rates were high ­because demand remained strong while supply had fallen since last year. The high costs of moving house coupled with low interest rates was convincing home owners to stay in their current properties, he said.

An estate agent Peter Chauncy said the current market conditions were the best he had seen in 20 years because of the pent-up demand from buyers.

Sydney real estate agents have been run off their feet tending to Chinese visitors in town over Golden Week, a traditional week-long holiday, which ended at the weekend, but transaction numbers are down as overseas property buyers struggle to get cash out of China. “Restrictions on lending mean there’s been a slowdown in the amount of buying and how long it takes to make a purchase,” Sydney-based agent Monika Tu said.

Foreign Investment Review Board application fees starting at $5000, coupled with state-based stamp duty surcharges levelled at foreign buyers, is slowing the rate of Chinese transactions.

But agents argue the biggest factor dampening demand is continuing Chinese capital outflow caps that restrict individuals to moving the equivalent of $US50,000 ($65,900) out of the country each year.

Savills agent Adam Ross scrapped the usual roster of harbour cruises and lavish lunches for a lower-key approach to Golden Week. “Historically it’s been a busy time for us, but it’s becoming less so,” he said. “I’ve seen clients with the fear of God in them over (how to get transactions done) and while that seems to be relaxing, they’re just not in the rush they used to be.’’

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