MELBOURNE'S property market has passed one of its biggest tests since the onset of the global financial crisis, with sales levels holding up despite a large number of properties going under the hammer.

The Real Estate Institute of Victoria estimates that more than 1080 auctions were held around the city yesterday, which is the highest number on one day since March 2008.

Buyers, shrugging off renewed warnings that interest rates are set to rise again, snapped up 68 per cent of the properties on offer. The strongest performers were in city's inner eastern areas, where 88 per cent of the houses in suburbs such as Richmond, Hawthorn and Kew sold.

Some 45 properties worth a total of $62 million changed hands in the inner east, including one palatial Victorian terrace house in Hawthorn East that fetched $3,205,000.

But the REIV, which has calculated the clearance rate on the results of 951 auctions collected so far, may have to downgrade the 68 per cent figure when the outcome of another 130 auctions are reported.

Recently, weekend clearance rates have been revised down by up to 3 percentage points as agents avoid reporting failed auctions to the industry group in the hope of negotiating a later sale.

REIV spokesman Robert Larocca said yesterday's clearance rate was a reflection of people's confidence in the economy and the strength of demand for property in Melbourne.

''There would have been a lot of very nervous vendors going into this weekend, with buyers having more choice than they have had in more than 2½ years,'' he said. ''Each time that the market has had a test thrown at it this year, it's not been affected in the slightest.''

Yesterday's result is still well below the record 85 per cent sales level set for a similarly busy auction day in the boom conditions in late March.