Solid Sydney winter market greets July

The Sydney home auction market continues to produce solid results for sellers generally despite the usual mid-winter slow-down in activity levels.

Nearly 550 homes are set to go under the hammer this Saturday which although well below last weekend’s 628 auctions remains significantly higher than the 422 auctioned over the same weekend last year.

The city and east will be Sydney’s most popular region for auctions this weekend with 73 listed.  Next highest and just below is the inner west with 72 followed by the south 64, the upper north shore 58, the west 49, the northern beaches 38, the lower north, the south west and the north west each with 37, Canterbury Bankstown 36 and the central coast with 21 auctions scheduled this Saturday.

Maroubra, Dee Why and Burwood are Sydney’s most popular suburbs for auctions on Saturday each with 7 listed followed by a number of suburbs with 6 auctions scheduled including Randwick, Surry Hills, Epping and Mascot.

The Sydney weekend auction market produced another solid mid-winter result for sellers generally last weekend with first home buyers greeting July with significant cuts to stamp duty now effective.

Sydney recorded a clearance rate of 69.7 per cent last Saturday which was again almost identical to the previous weekend’s 69.5 per cent result but remained lower than the 73.5 per cent recorded over the same weekend last year.

Despite the winter slow-down, a number of regions recorded strong results last weekend although the outer western suburbs continue to be market underperformers.

The Sydney home auction market tracked backwards over June impacted by the usual mid-winter decline in activity from increasingly distracted buyers and sellers.

Sydney recorded an overall home auction clearance rate over June of 66.4 per cent which was down on the 69.6 percent reported over the previous month but and also lower than the 69.2 per cent recorded over June last year.

Although clearance rates were lower over the month, auction volumes have surged this year in Sydney with 16378 listings over the first 6 months of the year compared to just 12708 over the same period last year – an increase of 28.9 per cent

Sydney recorded a median auction price of $1,330,000 over June which was 1.1 per cent higher than the $1,315,000 recorded over May and 8.6 per cent higher than the $1,225,000 recorded over June 2016.

This week the Reserve Bank convened for its regular monthly meeting to determine the direction of official interest rates over June. Following better economic news this month, the Bank predicably decided to leave rates on hold at the record 1.5 percent where they have been since the last cut in August last year.

Although monthly unemployment measures can be volatile, the latest data from the ABS revealed a sharp decline in the national seasonally adjusted rate over May from 5.7 per cent to 5.5 percent – the lowest result since February 2013.

With the recent sharp decline in the jobless rate, the Reserve Bank is now more likely to keep rates on hold over the foreseeable future – although the recently underperforming economy is not out of the woods yet.

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