More auctions for hungry Sydney market

Sydney home buyers struggling for choice are set for some relief this weekend with more homes up for auction. Vendors are clearly looking to take advantage of the current strong market conditions.

Nearly 500 homes are scheduled to go under the hammer on Saturday, which be significantly higher than the 393 auctioned last weekend but again well below the 747 listed over the same weekend last year.

Sydney’s upper north shore suburban region will host the highest number of auctions this weekend with 79 followed by the inner west 64, the south 59, the city and east 58, the northern beaches and the lower north each with 41, Canterbury Bankstown 34, the west 33, the central coast 24, the north west 14 and the south west with 11 auctions scheduled at the weekend.

Wahroonga is Sydney’s most popular auction suburb this weekend with nine, followed by Randwick. Mosman and Turramurra each with seven, Hunters Hill with six and several suburbs with five auctions listed, including Ryde, Surry Hills, Blacktown, Newtown, Eastwood, Greenacre and Darlinghurst.

The Sydney home auction market surged last weekend with already super-confident buyers bolstered by last week’s announcement by the Reserve Bank of a new-record low official interest rate.

Sydney recorded its highest weekend clearance rate for two months and its third highest of the year so far with an unequivocally strong 79.4 per cent. This was well clear of the previous weekend’s 75.7 per cent result and also well ahead of the 75.4 per cent recorded over the same weekend last year.

Low auction numbers remain a challenge for property hungry Sydney buyers and are supporting higher clearance rates and driving fierce competition in most areas.

Auction numbers although set to rise gradually over coming weekends into spring will remain well below last year’s record-level boom-time listings but will be similar to the 2014 and 2013 markets at the same time.

Andrew Wilson is Domain Group chief economist

Twitter @DocAndrewWilson

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