Sydney lockdown auctions: Well-heeled Sydneysiders rush to buy, sell properties prior to lockdown

Well-heeled Sydneysiders’ plans to buy and sell property were thrown into disarray on Saturday, with eastern suburbs auctions brought forward or pushed back to avoid online sales.

The serious Delta-strain outbreak in Sydney forced the council areas of Woollahra, Waverley, Randwick and the City of Sydney to go into lockdown from 4pm Friday as the city continued to record double-digit cases.

This meant auctions and open homes in these areas were no longer allowed to go ahead in person, ahead of the Saturday afternoon announcement that greater Sydney would come under the same rules.

Despite agents and auctioneers trying to remain upbeat on Friday, many were left scrambling to either bring Saturday auctions forward or postpone by at least a week in the four affected council areas.

More than a quarter of the 934 homes scheduled to go under the hammer in Greater Sydney on Saturday fell in the areas under stay-at-home orders.

By midday on Saturday, 325 properties scheduled to go to auction across Greater Sydney had sold prior, Domain data shows.

Across Sydney, by evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary clearance rate of 80.9 per cent from 680 reported results while 87 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.

Tim McKibbin, chief executive of the Real Estate Institute of NSW, the industry’s peak lobby group, said the public health order caused significant disruption to the auction market.

“Unquestionably, it’s going to adversely affect the auctions,” Mr McKibbin said. “Those put to online, because of the lack of competitive tension in the air, I don’t think you’ll see those properties reaching reserve or reaching the best outcome they could.”

Mr McKibbin said while the information was delivered to the industry late on Friday, he believed the state government “did their level best” to inform buyers and sellers.

But many agents and auctioneers were too nervous to take auctions online and made calls as early as possible to move auctions instead.

SOLD - $2,835,000

201 Denison Street, Queens Park NSW 2022

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Ray White Taylor and Partners’ Walter Burfitt-Williams sprung into action as he watched the lockdown announcement unfold on television on Friday morning. He decided to hold the auction at 201 Denison Street, Queens Park at 6pm Friday instead of 9am Saturday.

“We hit the phones. We made a very snap decision,” Mr Burfitt-Williams said.

And it paid off: the two-bedroom house sold for $2.835 million after mustering six registered parties to the sell-off late Friday afternoon, selling $535,000 above reserve.

SOLD - $5,500,000

12 Blackwood Avenue, Clovelly NSW 2031

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In Clovelly, the auction of a four-bedroom Federation house at 12 Blackwood Avenue, guided at $5.5 million, was postponed to 10 July.

The Agency Eastern Suburbs’ Chris Cantarella said it was the right thing to do for buyers and sellers.

“It was the best move to move it to two weeks. Most of my buyers were from these lockdown areas, and some were already in lockdown,” Ms Cantarella said. “I think I would achieve a better result in person.”

In Potts Point, a two-bedroom apartment at 1/46 Victoria Street went to auction online and sold for $1.86 million, $30,000 above reserve.

SOLD - $1,860,000

1/46 Victoria Street, Potts Point NSW 2011

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BresicWhitney Glebe’s Nick Playfair said they were comfortable with streaming the auction online after explaining the process to the three registered buyers, two of whom were from the lockdown areas.

“It started slower than a normal auction may,” he said. “We were comfortable with it, we’ve done it in the past, we’ve got a good support team so we can mobilise quickly.”

The effects of this lockdown would be felt differently than last year, said Domain senior research analyst Nicola Powell, with sellers opting to postpone this time rather than withdrawing as they bide their time in the hopes of eased restrictions.

“I expect the impact on sales to be minor because those open homes have been able to occur prior to lockdown, and the buyer pool would have been largely known. That shows sentiment is a bit more positive than what it was last year,” Dr Powell said.

She expected Sydney to see bumper auction weekends at the height of winter, typically a low season, if the lockdown lasts more than a week as more sellers postpone their auctions.