Sydney celebrates its busiest Saturday of the year with no sign of market weakness
The Sydney auction scene has just had its busiest Saturday of the year, with the increased stock showing there is no apparent sign of market weakness, writes Jonathan Chancellor.
NSW
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The Sydney auction scene has just had its busiest Saturday of the year, with the increased stock showing there is no apparent sign of market weakness.
Weekend sales ranged from $290,000 at Greenwich to $8.25 million at Palm Beach.
Some 700-plus properties were listed for auction, with agents kicking off at the unusually early hour of 8.30am.
With the results of 558 auctions tallied, 442 vendors found their buyer, reflecting a continuing strong 79 per cent preliminary success rate, and a likely final clearance rate in the 70s.
The same weekend last year had a dismal 44 per cent sales rate, in the lead-up to the pause for the long weekend.
The $290,000 Pacific Hwy, Greenwich, cheapie, a 26 sqm studio unit in a 1965 apartment complex, fell short of its $300,000 price guide.
But things were far rosier elsewhere, with an Earlwood property receiving an opening bid $200,000 above the reserve and eventually selling for $1.375 million to a first homebuyer couple.
A slim, tall Surry Hills home — an owner-built four-storey home on Little Riley St on just 54sqm — fetched $2.18 million. And seven registered bidders sought a five-bedder in Cherry St, Warrawee, which fetched $5.35 million. It sold to a local family whose son attends nearby Knox Grammar.
A Casula semi-detached home sold for $605,000, above of its $500,000 price guide through McGrath Estate Agents. The three-bedroom 1990s-built home had last traded in 2014 for $424,500. And a Berala knockdown fetched $910,000 through LJ Hooker agent Themy Panagiotidis, who had more than 20 registered bidders.
Ray White agent Daniel Llamas, who secured $1.71 million for a five-bedroom Castle Hill home among his four auctions, noted a “strong turnout from Chinese Australian buyers who were keen to be close to the new Metro station”.
Agents across Sydney advised there were few signs of Chinese buyers flying in for Golden Week, which begins October 1.
Chinese tourists taking advantage of their national holiday have often flocked to Sydney at this time of year, looking to invest. But agents say these buyers are not arriving in the same numbers or with the same buyer intensity they once did.
This is despite buyer website search activity from Hong Kong on realestate.com.au rocketing over the past six months. Due to political unrest in the region, interest was at its highest level ever recorded on the site, REA Group chief economist Nerida Conisbee said.
But while searches from Hong Kong are up, “the same cannot be said for China. “Over the past 12 months it has dropped by over half,” she said.
Ms Conisbee said fewer Chinese developers being active in Australia, higher taxes for foreign buyers of Australian property and “a general negative sentiment towards Australian property” all played a part. The Chinese government has also restricted the amount of cash that can be taken overseas for investment.
But Chinese buyer inquiry growth has been stronger in Sydney than elsewhere across Australia, Juwai.com executive chairman Georg Chmiel said.
“Each of the past three weeks has shown positive Chinese buyer inquiry growth compared with last September. Of course, they were pretty low last year compared with the peaks … in 2015 and 2016,” he said.
NICE LITTLE EARNER
A tiny studio apartment at Rushcutters Bay, with a shared bathroom and toilet down the hallway, sold recently for $212,000.
The 17sqm Art Deco Roslyn St unit is in original condition and has a view across to St Canice’s, the 1880s John Bede Barlow-designed church. In keeping with its small stature, the studio comes complete with a 1.8sqm kitchenette.
Tony Dowling, from Laing Real Estate, suggested the unit could be rented at $275 a week and at $310 after any renovation.
“I’m expecting the investor-buyer will proceed with council-approved plans for installation of a bathroom and toilet,” Mr Dowling said.
The communal facilities will eventually become storage space for the 24 units in the Tahoe apartment block.
Fetching $12,500 per sqm, the studio bettered the previous best $11,000 per sqm sale in the complex.
The 1940s block was leased to the Country Women’s Association who then secured its own site on nearby Greenknowe Ave in the 1950s. The CWA sold that for $18.5 million in 2014 to a Chinese developer who is now seeking more than $30 million.
SELLERS UP THE CREEK WITH PAD
It was Wolli Creek where continuing price weakness was evident amid weekend results.
There was a $605,000 sale of a two-bedroom apartment that traded at $628,000 in 2015.
Not a huge loss, but bigger once legal and estate agency selling costs are factored in.
The apartment is set in the Sorrento complex where the facilities include a heated pool, spa, gym, sauna and a playground for children.
It is the second time the price has backtracked since sold by Meriton at $395,000 in boomtime 2003, and then reselling six years later at $315,000.
It was marketed as the most affordable two bedroom available in Wolli Creek by the Richardson & Wrench agent Nick Atanasovski who suggested a $600 a week anticipated rental return. CoreLogic calculates Wolli Creek has 4750 apartments with the sales of 125 units this year ranging from $475,000 to $1.4 million. One $784,000 sale had traded at $820,000 in 2016.
STAR IN YOUR SUBURB
South Sydney Rabbitohs’ rising star Adam Doueihi has secured tenants again for his Bass Hill investment property.
The townhouse was recently marketed at $600 a week rent after being put up for $670 a week earlier in the year.
It’s rental return is still ahead of the suburb’s $550 median.
Doueihi, 21, and his brother paid $750,000 for the new four -bedroom duplex.
$8.2M JEWEL IN THE CROWN AT PALMY
A log cabin on the water at Palm Beach fetched $8.25 million at auction yesterday.
The weekender was listed following the death last year of Lysle Roberts, who headed Australia’s oldest jeweller Fairfax and Roberts.
There had been $8 million hopes for the 640sqm Snapperman Beach beachfront reserve holding.
Just the two bidders participated at the Sunday morning onsite auction, with the auctioneer struggling to be heard over the noise of a stink-boat just offshore.
It was knocked down to a couple from Northbridge after being called on the market at $8.2 million.
The Roberts family paid £825 in 1940.
They rebuilt it in log cabin-style in the ‘70s when they were all the rage.
Overlooking Pittwater, it is one of the priciest waterfront strips in Sydney with prices between $10.35 million to $21 million over the past year.
Mr Roberts’s 1920s city home, Sunnydale Cottage at Pymble, was sold on Saturday for $2,655,000.
MOVING HISTORY
A classic Bangalow home, located in the NSW Northern Rivers village, fetched $1,151,000 at a weekend auction when a local family beat off buying interest from Sydney and Melbourne.
There were five registered bidders.
The pre-auction price guide for the three-bedroom home had been $900,000 to $990,000.
The timber home had been relocated to the outskirts of the heritage village in 1905.
Local historians say the home was brought in by bullock train for the town’s pioneer medico, Dr Gerald Samuelson, who was the first local to own a motor car.
“It was apparently a red single-seater Renault which made him quite distinctive about town,” selling agent Karin Heller from Parkinson Prestige said.
With timber floors and high ceilings, the home sits in an elevated Campbell St location, an easy walk across the train line into the main street. It last traded at $148,500 in 1998.