Record-breaking Sydney auction weekend to attract 'monster crowd' as homeowners rush to sell

Sydney’s housing market is set to break a record on the last weekend of summer, with about 950 homes going under the hammer on Saturday.

The last time a weekend in February came close to offering this much choice for home buyers was in 2014, when 758 were taken to auction, Domain Group figures show.   

On the same Saturday in 2016, 654 homes went under the hammer. But this year, property market experts say home owners are rushing to sell, fearing the market will slow.

Among those pinning their hopes on the weekend is Paralympian Bart Bunting and his wife Catherine, who have put their inner-west home of 12 years up for sale.

“We’ll still have a mortgage but we’re capitalising [on the price growth] and are moving to the country for our kids,” Mr Bunting said.

Their three-bedroom, one-bathroom house at 32 Lindsay Street, Burwood, was bought in 2005 for $596,000 and has since been renovated. 

The price guide is now $1.3 million and it is likely to attract a “monster crowd” of 100 people, Richard Matthews Real Estate director Richard Baini said.

The buyer is expected to be either a young buyer looking for an entry-level detached home or a downsizer.

“This year is a big year for anyone looking to sell – there’s the perception that if you sell and buy now you’ll still get a bit more growth,” Mr Baini said. 

Buyer demand is at such high levels that many homes are selling ahead of auction, Real Estate Buyers Agents Association president Rich Harvey said.

“It has been four weeks since the market kicked off [for 2017] and it’s now the last hurrah for summer,” Mr Harvey said.

“People who buy this weekend will be in their homes before Easter – sellers are starting to think it has been a strong run and can’t go any further [and are listing].”

This rush before Easter is causing the “strongest start” to the year that even top auctioneers can recall experiencing.

Damien Cooley, managing director of the largest independent auction company in Australia Cooley Auctions, said they are set to sell a company record of 100 homes on the weekend.

“​There’s a lot of confidence this year, we’ve had two weeks with 80-plus per cent clearance rates and good results at mid-week in-room auctions,” Mr Cooley said.

The “stalemate” at the end of 2016, where no one was selling until they found something to buy, had finished after fears of leaving it too late in the property cycle to sell.

“There was definite fear from sellers last year that they were going to miss the market and they were unsure how buyers would perform in early-2017,” he said.

This has seen a rush-to-market before Easter across the inner-west, Sutherland Shire, eastern suburbs and north shore from sellers that’s likely to continue.

He doesn’t see the market slowing down without any interest rate hikes from the Reserve Bank, or widespread tightening of lending from banks.

But the market shouldn’t be seen as a “magic pudding” that keeps on giving, warned Domain Group chief economist Andrew Wilson.

“It’s a sense of get in while the going is good and if we get another 80 per cent clearance rate it’ll be back to the numbers we saw in boom time,” Dr Wilson said.

“This is the definitive test for the market. When we’ve had these results previously we’ve had strong prices growth but we have to ask: do people have the capacity to pay more?”