Fair Trading NSW warns agents on guidance rules as property prices come in way above estimates
Claims of underquoting against real estate agents are on the rise as Sydney house prices regularly soar past their price guidance especially in under-supplied auction suburbs.
NSW
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Claims of underquoting against real estate agents are on the rise as Sydney house prices regularly soar past their price guidance especially in under-supplied auction suburbs.
The last weekend of winter saw a strong 79 per cent success rate with prices coming in considerably higher than agent estimates.
Fair Trading NSW on Sunday reminded agents of their obligations to provide buyers with the most recent comparable sale prices.
The department has investigated 24 complaints about price guidance since the May 18 federal election when buyer demand starting rising amid subdued stock levels.
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Underquoting claims have been aired on social media following recent sales across Sydney from Oatley in the south to Marsfield in the north.
It comes as the weakest Sydney region, according to CoreLogic, was the inner west where 71 per cent of listings found buyers. The Hills district has a 91 per cent clearance rate. Just a year ago the Hills was at 47 per cent and the inner west at 56 per cent.
Fair Trading undertakes regular compliance campaigns across Sydney. It believes that laws since 2016 ensured that “home seekers are not wasting money on pre-purchase reports or legal advice,” a Fair Trading spokesman told The Daily Telegraph.
But it did note that any change in the market can impact on instances of underquoting, agreeing that a slow market had given “agents less opportunity to deliberately advertise a property for less than its value.”
There were just 327 weekend auction offerings, down 100 on the same Saturday last year.
Agents secured 260 sales with auctioneer Damien Cooley calculating there were an average of six bidders at most auctions.
“It’s red hot … with the strongest bidding I’ve seen since the peak of the boom. Values have increased substantially almost overnight,” he said.
A Woollahra trophy home was the priciest recorded sale at $7.35 million when sold pre-auction by Jacinta McDonell, the co-founder of Anytime Fitness, and her partner Matthew Connolly. It was listed with $7 million guidance through Phillips Pantzer Donnelley agent David Tyrrell.
There was a $5.06 million sale in Neutral Bay, $4.4 million in Riverview and $3.26 million in Brighton-Le-Sands. But sculptor Tom Arthur and his librarian wife Sandra failed to sell their Newtown masonic hall residence which was passed in at $5.5 million. The couple purchased it in 1987 for $255,000.
The first auction of spring saw a $1.85 million sale on Sunday morning when a Mona Vale house fetched $1.85 million through Raine & Horne agent Ben Spackman. There were just two registered parties, with the sole bidder securing the home which was built by the vendors 44 years ago.
Shane Oliver, the AMP Capital chief economist, said the August clearance rate was the strongest month since March 2017 given the post-election confidence along with rate cuts, tax cuts and the relaxation of the 7 per cent interest rate serviceability test.
“Tight credit, record unit supply and the soft economy will likely constrain the property recovery versus past cycles. But it looks like it has further to go for now,” Oliver forecast.