Prestige auction markets fail to feel the frost

Sydney’s home auction market tracked backwards last weekend, following a remarkable burst of buyer activity over the previous two Saturdays.

This weekend heralds the start of the usually-quieter winter selling season and follows an autumn in which overall results have been positive for both buyers and sellers in the still-solid Sydney market.

Nearly 550 auctions will be held this Saturday, which will be down on the 599 listed last weekend but well ahead of the 396 reported over the same weekend last year – which was impacted by the Queen’s Birthday holiday break, which is scheduled a week later this year over next weekend.

The winter market will begin in earnest after the Queen’s Birthday holiday break next week with typically lower auction listings and clearance rates. Auction activity in higher-priced suburbs usually hibernates through winter awaiting the revival of the stronger spring market. 

This year may see higher levels of activity than usual from prestige markets, reflecting the strong momentum in these sectors.

All-in-all, most buyers and sellers can be content with the predictable resilience of the Sydney market over autumn.

Sydney’s inner west is yet again the most popular region for auction in Sydney this weekend, with 80 listed followed by the city and east each with 77, the upper north shore 69, the lower north 61, the south 55, the northern beaches 41, the southwest 39, the west 32, Canterbury-Bankstown 31, the northwest 23, the Central Coast 18 and the Blue Mountains with no auctions scheduled.

Mosman has the highest number of auctions scheduled this weekend with 11, followed by Marrickville and Lane Cove, each with eight, and Dee Why and Pennant Hills, each with seven. Several suburbs have six auctions scheduled, including Strathfield, Randwick, Manly, Coogee, Epping, Blacktown and Oatley.

Sharply lower temperatures and falling clearance rates heralded the end of the Sydney autumn home auction market last weekend and also brought to a halt the mini-boom of the previous fortnight.

Sydney recorded a clearance rate of 72.8 per cent – well below the 77.3 per cent reported the previous Saturday, which in turn followed the remarkable 80.3 per cent rate on May 14.

Last Saturday’s result was also significantly below the 87.4 per cent on the same weekend last year during the height of the then record-breaking auction market boom.

Last Saturday again reflected the underlying disparity between regional results evident so far this year. Inner-suburban, higher-priced regions continue to produce strong results with outer-suburban lower-priced regions notably weaker. Sydney’s north west Hills region, however, continues with its steady improvement over recent weekends, following a sustained period of subdued activity

Dr Andrew Wilson is Domain Group’s chief economist

Twitter @DocAndrewWilson

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