Sydney property auction market still running hot with no sign of easing clearance rates

Sydney’s home auction market bounced back on Saturday, recording yet another boom-time result, with no real sign yet of the usual late-spring easing in clearance rates.

Sydney recorded a weekend clearance rate of 80.4 per cent, which was a jump from the previous Saturday’s 77 per cent and light years ahead of the 62.6 per cent recorded over the same weekend last year.   

Despite last weekend’s lower result, Sydney’s Saturday clearance rates have averaged 80.2 per cent over the 11 weeks of spring so far, in what continues to be a strong sellers’ market.

Listings numbers were, however, lower than last Saturday, with 760 homes going under the hammer compared to the previous weekend’s 830 and well below the 940 auctioned over the same weekend last year. Similar auction numbers will be conducted in Sydney next weekend, with around 750 properties listed.

With the exception of the Blue Mountains, which again scored 100 per cent clearance rate from its single reported auction, Sydney failed to record a regional clearance rate above 90 per cent for the first time since Saturday September 10th.  

Regional results remained consistently strong overall, however. Canterbury Bankstown led the rest of the pack with 88.9 per cent, followed by the northern beaches with 88.2 per cent, the inner west with 87.7 per cent, the upper north shore with 85.4 per cent and the most sales at 70, the lower north with 83.1 per cent, the south with 80 per cent, the city and east with 76.8 per cent, the north west with 75 per cent, the west with 74.5 per cent, the south west with 65 per cent and the central coast with a clearance rate of 50 per cent.

Notable sales reported at the weekend included:

• a five-bedroom home at 26 Torrington Road, Strathfield sold for $6.02 million by McGrath Concord;
• a four-bedroom home at 8 Havilah Street, Chatswood sold by McGrath Lane Cove for $5.3 million;
• a four-bedroom home at 92-94 Kangaroo Point Road, Kangaroo Point sold for $4.82 million by Ray White Sylvania;
• a three-bedroom home at 14 Ocean Street, Clovelly sold for $4.5 million by PhillipsPantzer Donnelley;
• a four-bedroom home at 24 Carrington Avenue, Mosman sold by LJ Hooker Lane Cove for $4.3 million.

The most expensive property reported sold at auction at the weekend was a six-bedroom home at 4 Bay Street, Greenwich, which sold for $6.2 million by Blunts Real Estate. The most affordable property reported sold at the weekend was a three-bedroom home at 4 Newton Place, Blue Haven, which sold for  $440,000 by Sorensen Real Estate.

For a list of Sydney weekend auction results click here.

Sydney recorded a median auction price of $1,227,750 on Saturday, which was lower than the $1,337,000 recorded the previous weekend. Saturday’s median was 8.1 per cent higher than the $1,136,000 recorded over the same weekend last year. A total of $456.4 million was reported sold at auction in Sydney at the weekend.

The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data reported a decline in building approvals for Sydney dwellings over September, with houses falling by 5.2 per cent and the volatile unit series down sharply by 20.2 per cent over the month.

Despite the fall, the number of house approvals has increased by 0.2 per cent over the first ten months of this year compared to the same period last year. Unit approvals were also up by 12 per cent over the same period, indicating a continuation of the recent record surge in activity.

The latest vacancy rate data for house vacancies over October in Sydney remained tight at 2 per cent, with unit vacancies easing slightly to a still tight 2.2 per cent — the same recorded over October last year.

Dr Andrew Wilson is Domain Group Chief Economist Twitter@DocAndrewWilson join on LinkedIn and listen 2UE Lifestyle Radio Fridays 11am and Mondays 5pm