More Sydney home auctions as market lifts

Another sharp rise in Sydney home auction numbers this weekend will present a stern test for a market that produced a promising early-season result last Saturday.

A total of 339 homes are scheduled to go under the hammer, which is well ahead of the 251 auctioned last weekend but again well below the 453 auctioned over the same weekend last year.

Sydney sellers continue to remain on the sidelines with auction numbers down by 30 per cent or 253 over the first three weekends of the season compared to the same period last year.

Relatively low auction numbers, however, may have contributed to a healthy clearance rate last weekend, promoting solid competition among buyers for available properties.

The Sydney home auction market bounced back strongly last Saturday, recording its highest clearance rate since early September last year. 

The weekend result of 72.5 per cent was well ahead of the extraordinarily low 43.3 per cent recorded the previous weekend, but still well below the 82.5 per cent recorded over the same weekend last year.

The inner west will again clearly host the most number of auctions this weekend with 59 followed by the upper north shore 44, the city and east and the south each with 42, the lower north 29, the northern beaches, the west and the south-west each with 25, the north-west 17, the central coast 15, Canterbury Bankstown 14 and the Blue Mountains with one auction scheduled this weekend.

Randwick is the most popular Sydney suburb for auctions this weekend with nine, followed by Mosman and Coogee each with six and Wahroonga, Marrickville, Ashfield and Kogarah with five auctions each listed on Saturday.

Although last Saturday’s auction market result was clearly a positive for sellers, early-season auction activity can be volatile, reflecting relatively low volumes and an uneven mix of property types, regions and price ranges.

With significantly higher auction numbers, this weekend will provide a more substantial environment to assess the current underlying nature of the Sydney housing market.

Economic clouds, however, continue to gather with a sharply lower sharemarket and growing concerns over the direction of the local and global economies perhaps to play into already fragile buyer and seller sentiment.

Dr Andrew Wilson is Domain Group’s chief economist

Twitter @DocAndrewWilson

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