Sydney market ‘on track to reach previous highs by April’
The Sydney property market has seen 6 per cent price recovered is on track to reach record highs by April after a super spring, writes Jonathan Chancellor.
NSW
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Sydney’s spring sales season ended with a bullish 83 per cent success rate on the biggest auction weekend of the year.
“The results provided a test of the market depth,” CoreLogic head of research Tim Lawless said.
The heightened buyer activity coincided with another strong month for price growth with Sydney leading the capital cities.
“Each of the five largest capitals is on track to record a rise in values over the month,” Mr Lawless said.
Sydney has seen around 6 per cent price growth during spring, with the northern beaches leading the recovery.
Sydney’s overall housing market was on track to reach previous record highs by around April next year if the current pace of growth continues, Mr Lawless forecast.
He stressed with Sydney values falling by about 15 per cent from peak to trough, there was still plenty of recovery yet to occur.
The November sales data is expected to show that house price growth outperformed apartments, which still show weak growth.
There were 885 Sydney auctions on Saturday with 567 results captured by CoreLogic.
There were 472 properties sold, ranging from an $11.2 million Cremorne Point home to $410,000 at Blackett.
Nerida Conisbee, chief economist at realestate.com.au, noted the Sydney market had returned to growth in the wake of the May federal election.
“Interest rate cuts, the completion of the royal commission, and tax cuts all led to an increase in buyer confidence,” she said.
“Although the buyers are well and truly back, we haven’t seen their enthusiasm flow through to seller confidence and as a result, listing volumes continued to decline.
“Buyers returning to the market coupled with low auction volumes and a strong increase in demand for premium suburbs and houses led clearance rates to be very high throughout spring.”
She pinpointed Castle Hill, Blacktown, Schofields and Oran Park as among the busiest suburbs.
Ms Conisbee said while Australian mining towns have seen the strongest recent price growth, Sydney’s premium market ranks as “the fastest-growing market in Australian capital cities”.
She said the top growth suburbs included Vaucluse, Rose Bay and Seaforth. Palm Beach and Avoca Beach have also performed well.
She noted rents had dropped in Sydney by 1.9 per cent over the past year as high levels of apartments entered the market.
The RBA recently calculated that annual investor credit growth is weak, sitting at the lowest since the data was first recorded in 1977, with investors who traditionally buy apartments still remaining on the sidelines.
YEARS BUILD CHARACTER
Loretto, a heritage-listed North Parramatta trophy home, was sold at weekend auction for $920,000.
The three-bedroom stone cottage was built about 1860, shortly after the arrival of the railway line.
It attracted its weekend buyer Matt Watts because of the nearby upcoming light rail.
“The neighbourhood is getting all this new infrastructure which makes it a solid place to buy,” he said.
“I hope to preserve and restore the home.
“The vendor really appreciated the place and I’d like to do that too.”
Wayne Gay at Walsh & Sullivan First National had four registered bidders, with just the two competing for the home, last traded in 1994 at $181,000.
NSW Heritage notes the property as a Victorian vernacular-style stone cottage built of ashlar blocks on front and side elevations.
HARBOURSIDE GEM
There was an $11.2 million harbourfront reserve sale in Cremorne Point, topping out the weekend, and spring selling season, results.
It has views across Sydney Harbour to the Opera House.
Selling agent Ivan Resnekov, of Century 21 Mosman, said the Milson Rd home attracted six registered bidders who made 60-plus bids.
Once the bidding got to $10 million, there were just the two remaining bidders.
Currently divided into two four-bedroom homes, Galada was listed by the 95-year-old former Royal Australian Air Force fighter pilot Arthur Pardey.
He was a member of 3 Squadron which flew Spitfires and Mustangs in the Italian campaign in World War II.
Mr Pardey and his late wife Adele bought the home on its 470 sqm block for $850,000 in 1987 on their move from Warrawee.
The house was built at a £1100 cost by James Verrills after its design by architect Edwin Orchard for Elsie and James Adamson.
BUYERS SHOULD LOOK WEST FOR BARGAINS
The cheapest weekend sale was in Blackett in Sydney’s west when $410,000 was paid for a redundant NSW Housing Department residence.
The three-bedroom Franklin Cres home sold through LJ Hooker Mount Druitt agent Deniz Sagin to an investor renovator.
The home sits on a 645 sqm block with granny flat potential.
Mr Sagin advised post-renovation it could attract $380 a week rental, reflecting a 4.8 per cent rental yield before costs.
The suburb’s median price is $450,000, according to realestate.com.au, still well below its $545,000 boomtime 2017 median.
The next cheapest was $462,000 for a three-bedroom Tregear home, just 3km away.
The third cheapest sale was at Bondi Beach, snapped up pre-auction at $535,000.
The one-bedroom flat, last sold in 2008 at $235,000, was recently a $400-a-week rental, thereby reflecting a 3.9 per cent rental yield.
BLOOMING BEAUTIFUL GARDEN
Gardener Melanie Akerman did not get to secure the sale of her northern beaches weekend offering.
The Bilgola Plateau home came with a $2.195 million guide through McGrath agent Adrian Venturi.
The five-bedroom Plateau Rd home with ocean views sits within 1100 sqm award-winning gardens.
It has 70-year-old camellias, 60-year-old hydrangeas plus two Japanese ornamental cherry trees. Ms Akerman calculated she has planted more than 600 box plants.
Stonework had been unearthed that revealed the garden’s original structure. There’s also a courtyard with a more modern accoutrement, the firepit.
The house was listed as the family is moving to Stockholm. It last traded in 2005 at $1.06 million.
Some 36 houses have been sold over the past year at a record $1.63 million median, according to realestate.com.au.
There have been 40 plus sales above $2 million among its 1200 houses since 2005, with the priciest this year being $3 million.
UNIT SALE GOES TO SCRIPT
The Edgecliff apartment that was home to the late actor Carmen Duncan has been sold for $1.25 million following her death earlier this year.
Duncan, best remembered for her roles on cop shows Division 4, Matlock Police, Water Rats and Homicide, bought the two-bedroom apartment for $450,000 in 1999, around the time she was appearing on All Saints.
With 97 sqm internal space, it had come with hopes of $1.1 million through Jane Schumann of Raine & Horne.
Her last role was in Hotel Mumbai, the 2018 Hollywood film co-written by local writer John Collee on the Taj Hotel terrorist attack.