Quiet Grand Final weekend for booming Sydney auction market

The red-hot Sydney weekend home auction market will take a well-earned breather this Saturday with sellers avoiding a clash with the significant Grand Final distractions.

Just over 250 homes are listed to go under the hammer on the weekend which will be significantly less than last Saturday’s pre-Grand Final surge of 717 and again well below the 375 conducted over the same weekend last year.

The upper north shore is again the most popular region in Sydney this weekend for auctions with 44 listed followed by the inner west 33, the city and east 27, the lower north 27, the south west and the northern beaches each with 21, the central coast 20, the west 19, Canterbury Bankstown 16, the south 14 and the north west with 12 auctions scheduled on Saturday.  

Mosman is also again the most popular suburb in Sydney for auctions this weekend with eight followed by several suburbs with four auctions listed including Randwick, Wahroonga, Manly, Seaforth, Wollstonecraft and Carlingford.

The Sydney home auction market continues to record boom-time results reporting yet another strong clearance rate last weekend despite the usual pre-Grand Finals rush to market by sellers. 

Sydney recorded a rate of 81.6 per cent last Saturday which followed the previous weekend’s stunning 15-month high result of 85.1 per cent and was again significantly higher than the 69.6 per cent recorded over the same weekend last year.

Hungry buyers were offered some short-term relief last weekend with a significant increase in the number of homes offered for sale as sellers avoided a clash with the distractions of this weekend’s Grand Finals.

Most of Sydney’s regions recorded clearance rates above 80 per cent again reflecting the remarkable consistency of the market’s strength through most suburban areas.

Last weekend’s pre-Grand Final Super Saturday of auctions signals the end of Sydney’s early spring selling season. The local market has certainly started the season strongly with consistently high and rising clearance rates. This in sharp contrast to the year before when the market was fading fast under the burden of higher mortgage rates producing significantly lower results.

Sydney recorded an overall auction clearance rate of 78.2 per cent over September compared to 75.2 per cent recorded over August and nearly 10 per cent higher than the 68.8 per cent reported over September last year.

Sydney’s monthly median auction price also surged over September increasing by 6.8 per cent to $1,281,000 and 11.4 per cent higher than September last year.

Sydney sellers are likely to be increasing attracted to the best spring selling conditions in years with strong competition amongst buyers for available homes in all areas. Prices are certainly to continue to rise in the Sydney market with low mortgage rates a catalyst for buyer confidence.

The Reserve Bank will gather for its regular monthly meeting next week to determine the direction of official interest rates over the next month. The Bank will likely continue to take a wait and see approach on rates following the recent cuts and will be focussing on the critical September quarter inflation data to be released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on October 26.

The Bank will also be wary about emerging signs of a resurgence in house prices growth in the hot Sydney and Melbourne spring markets.  

Dr Andrew Wilson is Domain Group’s chief economist

Twitter @DocAndrewWilson

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