Sydney's auction market having a below-average spring as clearance rates hover around 70 per cent

Sydney’s auction market is so far failing to keep up with the fierce results it saw last spring as clearance rates remain below the season average.

Sydney reported a solid clearance rate of 68.4 per cent on Saturday, which was similar to the 69 per cent recorded over the previous weekend but still well below the 80 per cent reported over the same weekend last year.

The weekend auction clearance rate remained steady despite higher numbers of auctions, with 721 homes listed to go under the hammer on Saturday compared to 676 the previous weekend and 674 auctioned over the same weekend last year.

Sydney recorded a median auction price of $1,247,000 on Saturday, higher than the $1,150,000 reported the previous weekend and 2 per cent higher than the $1,222,500 recorded over the same weekend last year. A total of $377.7 million of property was reported sold at auction in Sydney at the weekend.

Declining auction clearance rates over recent months have resulted in a sharp fall in Sydney house prices, with the boom-time results of recent years having now clearly ended.

Domain Group data shows that the Sydney median house price fell 1.9 per cent over the September quarter to $1,167,516, which was the first decline since December 2015 and only the second quarterly fall in house prices in more than years. Sydney unit prices also eased over the quarter, down by 0.8 per cent to $732,321.

Despite the September-quarter falls, Sydney house prices have increased 8.2 per cent over the past year, with annual unit prices up 4.5 per cent.

• Related: Click here for Saturday’s auction results
• Related: Click here for the Market Snapshot
• Related: Randwick house sells $420,000 over reserve

Although home prices are now falling, the underlying drivers of the Sydney housing market remain positive with strong migration, a robust local economy and an underlying chronic shortage of homes. Newly introduced stamp duty concessions for local first home buyers have also fuelled increased demand from this group.

Recent action by policymakers to tighten lending conditions for residential investors however has acted to dampen housing demand and contributed to declines in house price growth. This has particularly impacted the Sydney market with its high proportion of investor activity.

Harbour and beachside suburban regions continue to attract buyers and provide strong results overall for sellers.  The lower north was again a leading performer with a top clearance rate on Saturday of 80.9 per cent. This was closely followed by the northern beaches significantly higher this weekend with 80.4 per cent and the city and east with another consistent top result at 80 per cent.  

Canterbury Bankstown was next highest with 77.8 per cent then the inner west 70.1 per cent, the central coast 66.7 per cent, the south 64.2 per cent, the upper north shore 64 per cent, the west 59.1 per cent, the north-west 58.6 per cent and the south-west again the lowest on Saturday with a clearance rate of 47.7 per cent.

Sydney’s outer western suburbs continue to record the lowest clearance rates of all the suburban regions.

Notable sales reported at the weekend included:

• A four-bedroom home at 9 Phoebe Street, Balmain, sold for $4,750,000 by Belle Property Balmain,
• A five-bedroom home at 24 Willowie Road, Castle Cove, sold by LJ Hooker Northbridge for $4.5 million
• A six-bedroom home at 94-96 Burlington Road, Homebush, sold for $4.22 million by Richardson and Wrench Strathfield,
• A four-bedroom home at 4 Riddell Street, Bellevue Hill, sold for $3,620,000 by The Agency
• And a five-bedroom home at 20 Treatts Road, Lindfield, sold by McConnell Bourn Lindfield for $3.5 million.

The most expensive house reported sold at auction was a four-bedroom home at 144A Hewlett Street, Bronte, sold for $6,430,000 by PhillipsPantzer Donnelley. The most affordable property reported sold at the weekend was a one-bedroom unit at 8/660 Barrenjoey Road, Avalon Beach, sold for $400,000 by Purplebricks NSW.