Calm before the storm for hot Sydney market

Auction numbers in the still booming Sydney weekend auction market will be slightly down this weekend before a record flood of listings swamps the local market the following Saturday.

Nearly 800 homes will go under the hammer this Saturday which although lower than last weekend’s 880 auctions will remain well ahead of the 538 auctioned over the same weekend last year.

Significantly higher volume of homes going under the hammer this year compared to last on is providing hungry Sydney buyers with a wider choice of listings.

The upper north shore will again host the most number of auctions on Saturday with 121 followed by the inner west 106, the city and east 91, the south 88, the lower north 81, the northern beaches 73, the west 70, Canterbury Bankstown 49, the south west 39, the north west 35, the central coast 26 and the Blue Mountains with 5 auctions listed for Saturday.

The most popular suburbs for auctions this weekend in Sydney are Mosman, Ryde and Baulkham Hills each with 10 followed by Manly and Blacktown each with 8 and a number of suburbs with 7 auctions listed on Saturday including Marsfield, Auburn, Neutral Bay and Darlinghurst.

Sydney auction buyers remain unfazed by recent mortgage rate increases by the big banks with the local market reporting another weekend of boom-time clearance rates.

Sydney recorded a strong clearance rate of 80.2 per cent last Saturday which although below the previous weekends 82.2 per cent remained well ahead of the 70.0 per cent recorded over the same weekend last year.

Sydney has made a strong start to the autumn selling season with a total clearance rate over March of 75.8 per cent. Although this was slightly lower than the 77.4 per cent recorded over February, it was well ahead of the 68.8 per cent recorded over March last year.

Sydney recorded a median auction price of $1,306,000 over March which was higher than the $1,290,000 reported over February and 4.9 per cent higher than the $1,245,000 recorded over March last year.

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