'Flight to quality': Buyers mark properties harder than six months ago

Segments of Sydney’s housing market were far from being in the doldrums on Saturday as the weekend auction clearance rate fell below 50 per cent for the third week in a row.

Saturday’s auction clearance rate recovered at the margins, rising to 48 per cent after slumping to 44.5 per cent a week earlier. The Domain Group said real estate agents reported results for 532 of the 677 auctions scheduled this weekend.

Agents say the cut-through trend in the current market is a flight to quality, and buyers are marking properties much harder than six months ago.

Buyers are competing vigorously for renovated homes and attractive land sites in prized pockets of the city, but are giving a wide berth to some second-tier properties.

Ray White easily found a buyer for a terrace house in a sought-after spot in Newtown on Saturday.

The property, at 14 Phillip Street and near Enmore Road, pulled five registered and four active bidders, and sold for $1.8 million. The guide price was $1.7 million.

“It is a great corner terrace right in the heart of Newtown, renovated with three bedrooms, two bathrooms and one car space on 150 square metres,” said selling agent Ercan Ersan. “The good properties are going to do well in any market. But, the tough ones and the weird ones, on busy roads, or whatever, struggle in this market.”

Other top sales in the inner west included 153 Young Street, Annandale, a renovated four-bedroom terrace, which fetched $3.36 million through Pilcher Residential; and 12 Melville Avenue, Strathfield, sold for $3.065 million through Belle Property Strathfield.

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The most expensive sale reported this weekend was a large Federation house in need of considerable TLC, at 13 Etham Avenue, Darling Point. The home, on 486 square metres and held by one family for 60 years, sold moments after its auction for the reserve price of $5 million.

There were six registered bidders, one of whom kicked off the auction with a $4 million offer. This was countered with a $4.8 million vendor bid from The Agency Eastern Suburbs. A $4.81 million bid was posted by the sole active bidder, currently living in Paddington, before post-auction negotiations started.

Selling agent Ben Collier said buyers of higher-priced homes were generally meeting the asking prices.

He said the Darling Point property was a beautiful house that needed significant attention, but was in a great spot.

“The property still stacked up,” he said. “We were quoting $5 million, the reserve was $5 million and it sold for $5 million.”

In other sales, a house at 25 Beach Street, Tennyson Point, fetched $4.96 million through Ray White Gladesville, and a property at 86 Tunstall Avenue, Kingsford, sold for  $4.45 million ($650,000 above reserve), through Chris Cantarella and Graeme Anderson of The Agency Eastern Suburbs.

The “buy-in-the-best-location-you-can-afford” approach was evident at a two-bidder auction for a two-bedroom apartment at 33/29 Carabella Street, Kirribilli, which has excellent water views. The deceased estate sold for $1.377 million – $277,000 above reserve through McGrath Neutral Bay.

Across town in Bellevue Hill, buyer’s agent Rodney McLoughlin, of TBAS, attended an auction with two bidders at 31A Bunyula Road. The free-standing property on 470 square metres was passed in at $4.651 million, but later sold for an undisclosed amount through Black Diamondz Property Concierge.

“The dynamics of the market have changed, but it’s different in Bellevue Hill, I’ve noticed,” McLoughlin said.

“People still want to be in Bellevue Hill because it’s close to the private schools.”

McLoughlin said the outer suburbs would be the worst affected by the decline in prices in Sydney compared with inner areas.