Fading Sydney market welcomes the spring selling season

The Sydney spring selling season officially this weekend and although auction listings will be lower than last weekend, rising auctions over coming weekend will test the recently fading market.

Nearly 650 homes are set to go under the hammer on Saturday which will be lower than the 675 auctioned in Sydney last weekend but significantly higher than the 537 auctioned over the same weekend last year.

The upper north shore will host the most regional auctions with 93 listed followed by the south with 91, the inner west 79, the city and east 75, the lower north 59, the west 55, the northern beaches 46, the south west 42, Canterbury Bankstown 38, the north west 37 and the central coast with 17 auctions scheduled.

Randwick and Turramurra are the most popular suburbs for auctions this weekend in Sydney with 8 each followed by a number of suburbs with 7 listed including St Ives, Dee Why, Ryde, Ashfield, Beecroft and Kellyville

The Sydney weekend auction market ended winter with a thud last Saturday with clearance rates falling over consecutive weekends for the lowest non-holiday result since April 16 last year

Sydney reported a clearance rate of 67.9 per cent last Saturday which was down again on the 69.4 per cent recorded the previous weekend and significantly lower than the booming 80.7 per cent reported over the same weekend last year.

Sydney remains a city divided with a clear disparity in regional results with inner suburban areas continuing to produce significantly higher results compared to the middle and outer suburbs.  Inner suburban results however were lower last weekend compared to the previous, with outer suburban clearance rates slightly higher overall than the previous Saturdays.

The lower north was the top performing region last weekend with a strong clearance rate of 81.0 per cent followed by the upper north shore 75.5 per cent, the city and east 72.2 per cent, the inner west 71.9 per cent, the northern beaches 70.8 per cent, the central coast 66.7 per cent, the west 65.9 per cent, Canterbury Bankstown significantly higher this weekend at  60.5 per cent, the north west 58.8 per cent, the south 55.2 per cent and the south west  with a clearance rate of 50.0 per cent.

The Sydney winter home auction market has ended with clearances rate weakening although auction numbers remain significantly higher than recorded over the same period last year.

Sydney weekend auction clearances rates averaged 70.6 per cent over winter, compared to 79.0 per cent over autumn and 77.5 percent over winter last year.

7,795 weekend auctions were conducted over winter which was lower than the 9,040 auctioned over autumn but well ahead of the 5,785 or 34.7 per cent higher than were conducted over winter last year.

Although Sydney auction numbers will continue to rise through spring and likely remain ahead of last year’s totals, clearance rates are set to track lower as the lower interest rate energy driven by last year’s rate cuts dissipates.

Sydney sellers overall however will maintain the upper hand, particularly in the inner suburban markets.

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