Sydney auction numbers subdued again this weekend

The Sydney home auction market will continue the recent pattern of relatively low listing numbers this weekend with buyers however still competing vigorously in the robust early spring conditions  

Just over 550 homes are listed to go under the hammer on Saturday which will be similar to the 567 auctioned last weekend. And this weekend’s auction activity will again remain well below last year’s 832 listings recorded over the same weekend.

The inner west is the most popular region in Sydney this weekend for auctions with 87 listed, closely followed by the upper north shore 86, the city and east 67, the south 62, Canterbury Bankstown 46, the south west 45, the lower north 42, the northern beaches 39, the west 37, the north west 32 the central coast 14 and the Blue Mountains with two auctions scheduled on Saturday.  

Epping, Strathfield and St Ives are the most popular suburbs in Sydney for auctions this weekend with eight each, followed by Annandale, Leichhardt and Artarmon each with seven and Wahroonga, Baulkham Hills and Turramurra each hosting six auctions on Saturday.

The Sydney home auction market tracked backwards last weekend following a month of boom-time results to start the early spring selling season.

Sydney recorded a clearance rate of 77.1 per cent last Saturday which, although sharply lower than the previous weekend’s 80 per cent, remained significantly ahead of the 72.4 per cent recorded over the same weekend last year.

Prior to last weekend, the local market had recorded four consecutive weekends with clearance rates at or above 80 per cent, and although the latest result has broken the sequence, it nonetheless still represents a strong results for sellers.

Regional results last weekend revived the two-step look of the local market characteristic of earlier in the year with inner-suburban higher-priced regions reporting notably higher results than outer-suburban lower-priced areas.

Although results were down last weekend, the Sydney early spring auction market continues to produce healthy results for sellers.  Auction numbers however remain well below last year’s record-level offerings. Total listings are also sharply lower with newly listed homes falling by 22.6 per cent over August compared to the same month last year.

Positive economic news will help to bolster the local housing market with the Australian Bureau of Statistics reporting that GDP increased by 3.3 per cent over the year ending the June quarter – the best annual result in four years although much of the recent growth reflected government spending.

Dr Andrew Wilson is Domain Group’s chief economist

Twitter @DocAndrewWilson