GLOBAL sharemarket panic has spooked would-be property buyers in Geelong and along the coast, plunging auction clearance rates down to just 12.5 per cent.

Geelong agents said nervous buyers kept their hands firmly in their pockets in the midst of economic uncertainty, with just two of nine suburban properties selling under the hammer, The Geelong Advertiser reports.

The clearance rate in Geelong plummeted from 57 per cent last weekend to just 22 per cent at the weekend, comparable to REIV statistics of 69 per cent for the same weekend last year.

Things weren't any better along the Bellarine Peninsula and the Surf Coast, where all seven properties up for auction failed to sell. One auction was cancelled due to a lack of interest.

The results come despite the Reserve Bank's historic 1 per cent rate cut last week.

Bluechip property 188 Noble St, Newtown, was one of many top-end casualties throughout the state, passed in on a vendor bid of $1 million, despite its prime location and strong pre-auction interest. It is now on the market for $1.2 million.

"The section of the market which is likely to be affected today is the section that has some connection to the investment market," selling agent Bob Gartland, from Gartland Real Estate, told The Geelong Advertiser.

"You would imagine that people who are feeling the pinch because of their share position may be the people who are buyers for property residentially of the upper end.''

Read more at The Geelong Advertiser.