Another record auction day greets Sydney June market

The Sydney winter home auction market officially begins this weekend with a record number of listings as sellers rush to take advantage of the still robust local market conditions.

Over 800 homes are set to go under the hammer this Saturday which will be similar to the 836 conducted last weekend but well ahead of the 549 listed over the same weekend last year.

This weekend’s auction numbers will be a record June Saturday offering and significantly surpassing the previous record set of 670 on set on June 20 2015.

Sydney’s inner west will host the most number of auctions this weekend with 111 closely followed by the upper north shore with 109, the city and east 105, the south 101, the lower north 78, the west 63, the northern beaches 57, the south west 47, Canterbury Bankstown 45, the north west 43, the central coast 18 and the Blue Mountains with just 1 auction scheduled on Saturday.

Mosman and Neutral Bay are the most popular suburbs for auctions this weekend in Sydney with 10 each followed by Maroubra and Surry Hills each with 9, Lane Cove North, Cronulla and Ermington each with 8 and a number of suburbs with 7 auctions listed including Paddington, Epping and Marrickville.

Although the Sydney auction market produced yet another unquestionably good result for sellers last weekend, record numbers of May listings have clearly acted to cool the red-hot autumn results of recent months.

Sydney recorded a clearance rate of 75.9 per cent last Saturday which was lower than the previous weekend’s 76.9 per cent but higher than the 72.8 per cent recorded over the same weekend last year.

Weekend clearance rates averaged 76.4 percent over May which is down on the 79.5 per cent averaged over April. Sydney also failed to record a Saturday clearance rate over 80.0 percent during May unlike the previous three months when these boom-time results were plentiful.

Although early signs are emerging of an easing of the booming Sydney housing market, the underlying drivers of housing market activity remain positive. Surging migration, a chronic shortage of homes and a strong local economy will ensure demand remains ahead of supply

Although recent national economic data has been largely underwhelming, the Sydney economy continues to charge ahead. Latest ABS data reports that the Sydney jobless rate fell to just 4.4 per cent over April which was well below the 4.8 per cent recorded over April last year. The latest April result was also the equal lowest recorded since August 2012 – nearly five years ago.

The Sydney economy has also added 18,905 jobs to the local workforce over the past year.

Dr Andrew Wilson is Domain Group Chief Economist Twitter@DocAndrewWilson join on LinkedIn and Facebook at MyHousingMarket.