Buyers impressed by bumper crop

The overall clearance rate at the weekend was 69.5 per cent, up from the previous weekend’s 56 per cent.

Spring clearance rates are running at 65 per cent, down on 72 per cent last September but higher than the past four-month average.

The east and inner-west have been the strongest performers, with rates above 70 per cent.

The number of newly advertised NSW residential properties – private treaty and auction – in the month to September 5 was 12,973, close to the 13,101 new listings at the same time last year, according to RP Data.

Agents have listed a record 2468 auctions in September, up from the record of 2410 set last September, said Australian Property Monitors.

But the total number of advertised NSW listings stands at 54,889, down on the 59,389 last year.

The price divide between Sydney’s dearest and cheapest properties at the weekend was a hundred-fold, even though they were just four kilometres apart.

In Darlinghurst, a 16 square metre studio unit with dilapidated kitchen fetched $170,000, while on exclusive Seven Shillings Beach, an eight-bedroom Point Piper house sold for $17.3 million. Both had an art deco feel about them. And both vendors were happy.

The price of the Point Piper property easily exceeded a rejected $15.25 million offer before auction. And the Darlinghurst vendor secured 6.5 per cent annual growth over six years.

There were six registered bidders for the Francis Street first-floor studio, which sold above its $155,000 reserve.

”The studio sold to an investor who after renovations is likely to get $250 a week,” Darlinghurst agent Dominic D’Ettorre said.