Predictably quieter weekend for Sydney’s mixed bag auction market

Sydney auction numbers will be as usual well down this weekend following last weekend’s Super Saturday of activity with buyers and sellers distracted by the Labour Day long weekend and the commencement of school holidays

Just over 400 homes are likely to go under the hammer this holiday weekend which will be predictably significantly lower than last Saturdays 834 but well ahead of the 265 auctioned over the same weekend last year

Sydney’s south, upper north shore and city and east are the most popular regions for auctions this weekend with 50 each followed by the south west 43, the inner west 41, the lower north 35, the northern beaches 32, the west 31, Canterbury Bankstown 28, the north west 22 and the central coast with 17 auctions scheduled.

Maroubra is Sydney’s most popular suburb for auctions this Saturday with 6 listed followed by Randwick, Baulkham Hills and Coogee each with 5 and a number of suburbs with 4 auctions scheduled including Newport, Cronulla, Castle Hill, Yagoona and Ryde.

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The recently fading Sydney home auction market survived its September Super Saturday of auctions last weekend recording a solid clearance rate for sellers despite the usual flood of pre-holiday listings

Sydney reported a clearance rate of 70.2 per cent last Saturday which was higher than the previous weekend’s year-low 67.0 per cent but significantly lower than the booming 81.6 per cent reported over the same weekend last year.

The number of properties reported sold before auction continues to climb with motivated sellers keen to secure a sale from a dwindling pool of buyers. 169 homes were reported sold before auction last weekend which was well ahead of the 148 reported the previous weekend and significantly higher than the 109 reported a month ago on August 19.

A remarkably strong result from the northern beaches contributed to last weekend’s higher Sydney clearance rate with upper north shore also sharply higher an additional factor in the improved overall result.

The northern beaches was the top regional performer last weekend with a clearance rate of 85.2 per cent followed by the upper north shore with 79.4 per cent, the lower north 76.7 per cent, the inner west 72.6 per cent, the south 72.2 per cent, the city and east and the west each with 71.1 per cent, the north west 55.8 per cent, the central coast 53.8 per cent, Canterbury Bankstown  50 per cent and the south west below 50 per cent again at the weekend with a clearance rate of just 45.7 per cent.

Residential investor activity has declined sharply in NSW as recently tighter lending conditions have clearly impacted most housing markets.

Latest data from the ABS reported that NSW approved residential investor loans to the value of $5.7b over July which was a dramatic decline of 22.3 per cent compared to the previous month’s total. July’s NSW total was also 0.8 per cent lower than that recorded by the local market over July last year.

Although investor lending in the NSW fell steeply over July, loans to this group to the value of $42.6bn were approved over the first seven months of this year which is a solid increase of 17.5 per cent compared to the same period last year.

Nearly all states recorded sharp declines in loans to residential investors over July clearly reflecting the impact of restrictive lending practices recently introduced by banks as a response to policy initiatives by APRA the financial regulator.

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