Auction wrap: Sydney’s home sales surge as mood improves

Sydney reported a weekend auction clearance rate of 79 per cent amid surging mid-spring listings.

The weekend’s results included a $13.2m-plus post-auction result for the longtime Point Piper home of veteran advertising executive Malcolm Spry and wife Helen.

Sydney reported a weekend auction clearance rate of 79 per cent amid surging mid-spring listings.

The Sydney auction market was “rising to a boom” after October’s strong finish for sellers, My Housing Market chief economist Dr Andrew Wilson suggested.

“The 79 per cent was just below the 80 per cent boom benchmark which looks sure to be reached in coming weekends,” he said.

“Saturday’s result was the highest since the easing of autumn coronavirus restrictions with clearance rates now tracking higher than the same period last year.”

The results included a $13.2m-plus post-auction result for the longtime Point Piper home of veteran advertising executive Malcolm Spry and wife Helen, best remembered as the restaurateur of the noted late 1980s Sydney business luncheon hotspot, Chez Oz.

Their home, designed by Durbach Block Architects, won the Robin Boyd Award for the nation’s best home in 2004, a year after its completion.

Sydney Sotheby’s agent Michael Pallier saw all three of his registered bidders compete for the hillside listing, with the sale at an undisclosed price coming minutes after being passed in to the Chinese Australian top bidder.

Competing Bids gleaned there was a 12-month delayed settlement option in the contract prepared by Sydney solicitor Nicholas Eddy.

Some 864 Sydney homes were taken to auction, up from 700 over the previous week and 843 this time last year.

Dr Wilson noted the northern beaches was yet again Sydney’s top region with an 89 per cent clearance rate, followed by the upper north shore with 87 per cent and the inner west with 84 per cent. He says Sydney prices are on the rise.

Sydney median weekend auction prices were up 4.9 percent during October over September however unit prices fell by 1.1 percent, Wilson said.

Clearance rate up

There were 1757 homes taken to auction across all the capital cities over the past week, up from 1427 over the previous week and 1555 this time last year. Of the 1433 results collected so far by CoreLogic, 77 per cent were successful, the highest preliminary clearance rate since late February.

Melbourne had 604 auctions, up from 490 over the previous week and 255 this time last year.

“The week leading up to Melbourne Cup traditionally sees auction volumes dip across the city. However, this year doesn’t appear to be impacted to the extent that we would usually see, which is not overly surprising given restrictions across the city have only started to ease,” CoreLogic noted.

Of the 530 Melbourne results collected so far, 75 per cent had sold, an increase on last week’s preliminary clearance rate of 72 per cent, which revised down to 63 per cent by final results collection.

Melbourne’s top sale was $4.45m on The Avenue in Surrey Hills.

12 The Avenue Surrey Hills was Melbourne’s top sale.

The extended 1906 Edwardian home Deanesholme, set in Julie Crowe-designed gardens, had been listed unsuccessfully twice before. The latest Marshall White price guide for the five-bedroom home was $4m to $4.4m, having had $4.55m hopes in pre-pandemic February and $4.95m in August last year.

It had traded unrenovated at $2.1m in 2012 when sold by former Hawthorn AFL player Trent Croad.

Melbourne saw a mid-week private treaty sale of a six-bedroom house at 32 St Vincent Place, Albert Park which had been tipped to fetch between $11m and $11.5m. It fetched $10.75m, having last sold in 2005 at $4.6m.

Japanese flavour

Brisbane enjoyed its equal strongest success rate of the past six weekends when 60 per cent of weekend auction listings found buyers.

Brisbane’s top result was in Toowong, when a home fetched a suburb $7.3m riverfront record. There were four bidders at the auction conducted by Adcock Prestige selling agent Jason Adcock.

24 Glen Road Toowong fetched $7,3m, a suburb riverfront record.

The three-storey home was marketed as sitting on a 1756sq m “flood-free” lot with enough space for a tennis court. Set 3.5km to the CBD, the home offered a modern take on traditional Japanese architectural features.

The prior top riverfront sale was a 1222sq m building block on Archer Street at $6.175m in September last year.

Cubberla passed in

The historic Fig Tree Pocket, Brisbane ranch-style homestead Cubberla was offered to the market on the weekend for just the third time since its 1950s construction.

It was passed in at $4.35m with two bidders when auctioned by Adcock Prestige.

The Jesmond Road home, with wings protruding to create an X-shape, was created by W.P. Hamon, a grazier who’d returned from an eight-month overseas trip.

Brisbane ranch-style homestead Cubberla in Fig Tree Pocket.

The architects Cook & Kerrison designed the single level residence, which sat on 30ha.

It is now on two hectares, still one of the biggest residential blocks close to the Brisbane CBD.

The five-bedroom home now features stylish contemporary interiors with a crisp white finish.

There’s 1000sq m of living space split in to four wings.

Green paddocks surround the home, which features a herb garden and veggie patch, chook pen, a 10m pool, flood-lit tennis court and horse facilities including two stables, day yards, a wash bay, tack room and a feed shed. It is down the road from where mining billionaire Clive Palmer spent $5m in June.

Palmer also owns the 1.21ha River Gum Retreat on the riverfront, which he bought for $7.5m in 2018.

Conflicting forecasts

While My Housing Market chief economist Dr Andrew Wilson thinks the growing likelihood of a Reserve Bank rate cut on Tuesday will “add to burgeoning confidence from both buyers and sellers in the Sydney housing market”, not all economists agree.

According to AMP Capital chief economist Shane Oliver, Sydney is seeing a pick-up in activity rather than prices.

Oliver forecasts “higher unemployment, a stop to immigration and weak rental markets” will push Australian prices down by another 5 per cent into next year.

“Australian home prices at present are being protected by income support measures and bank payment holidays.

“Melbourne is particularly at risk on this front as its Stage 4 lockdown has pushed more businesses and households to the brink.

“Smaller cities and regional areas are in much better shape,” Oliver said, adding he expected the RBA to announce significant further monetary easing on Tuesday. “We expect the key elements to be a cut in the cash rate, the term funding facility rate and the three-year bond yield target.”

Spending spree

There’s no let-up in the Sydney spending spree by Robin Khuda, the co-founder and chief executive of data centre operator Airtrunk.

Khuda has now splurged $38m on real estate this year, acquiring seven Sydney properties since May.

Khuda’s investment vehicle, Asia Digital Investments, recently spent $6m on the Palm Beach Fish & Chips commercial premises on a 1140sq m block on Barrenjoey Road. His purchases have included a $12.5m Ocean Road, Palm Beach, home opposite the beach. Khuda’s initial 2020 purchase was a $4.675m Woollahra townhouse. He then went on to spend $6.1m on the recently completed McMahons Point apartment briefly owned by the former NZ PM Sir John Key. It has been put up for rent at $3000 a week, reflecting a 2.5 per cent yield.

Competing Bids gleans Khuda continues to search for a Mosman trophy home.