Sydney house sales slow down as property buyers go on strike
Sydney’s auction withdrawal rate remains stubbornly high as many vendors ascertain there’s little buyer interest in their home.
Sydney’s auction withdrawal rate remains stubbornly high as many vendors ascertain there’s little buyer interest in their home. With two weekends before the spring selling season, auction listings jumped to 620, with the preliminary success rate hovering around 59 per cent of the results collected so far.
But Sydney continued to see 25 per cent pulled from going under the hammer without a rescheduled date.
Former Liberal Party federal member Fiona Martin didn’t pull her East Ryde house from its onsite Saturday afternoon auction, which proceeded with no bids from buyers.
There was just a $2.9m vendor bid.
There had been initial $3.4m hopes for the five-bedroom, three-bathroom house, which after one week on market was revised to $2.9m. The CobdenHayson listing agent George Gialouris was back there for Sunday’s open house telling prospective buyers there was a $3m asking price.
Martin, a child psychologist who represented the Reid electorate from 2019 until her May election defeat, built in 2020 after demolishing the prior home, following its $1.2m purchase in 2018 when there had been $1.5m hopes.
“The withdrawal rate was a key factor in dragging the Sydney clearance rate lower,” CoreLogic’s Tim Lawless said, noting the national clearance rate had meanwhile seen “a subtle improvement trend”.
PropTrack’s Cameron Kusher calculates there are almost 700 Sydney auctions this week, then 750 in the last week of winter. Sydney’s priciest weekend offering, a $15m Mosman home, failed to sell.
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Vendors get real
With 478 results collected so far by CoreLogic, Melbourne’s preliminary clearance rate rose to 65 per cent, the highest since early May as vendors become more accommodating of the prices on offer.
Melbourne’s top weekend sales were pre-auction, in Brighton East and Kew. The $4.06m Kew sale came five months after the listing on Raheen Drive had $4.55m hopes. These were adjusted to $3.5m to $3.8m during the auction campaign by Marshall White. It was a 2003 Jane Millar-designed home with views across Studley Park.
The next priciest was the 2016-built five-bedroom, five-bathroom Arnold St, Brighton East home which was sold pre-auction through Buxton at $3.811m.
The Porter Davis Prestige home had first sold in 2016 at $2.65m.
The highest sale notified on Saturday was at Deepdene when a recently renovated five-bedroom home fetched $3.68m.
The price guide from William Chen and Sophia Dong at Marshall White had been $3.6m to $3.9m.
It last sold in 2014 at $2.35m.
“The auction went well considering the current market,” Dong told Competing Bids.
“It was a bit like pulling teeth to get the bids going after we had an opening vendor bid of $3.5m.
“The vendors were very realistic and we had a reserve price of $3.6m.”
Dong said the buyer from Mount Waverley was looking to be close to schools.
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Gold standard
The nation’s top notified auction result was on Queensland’s Gold Coast. The riverfront Carrara home fetched $6.68m through Mitch Palmer at Ray White Broadbeach Waters. All four bidders competed after over 100 groups inspected the property.
It sold to a local, having been marketed as a bespoke family compound, given its 2714sq m Garden Grove St holding came with a five-bedroom house plus guesthouse, pool and jetty.
“The prestige end of the market is holding firm,” Palmer said.
“There is a particularly strong appetite for completed luxury homes which don’t need a dollar spent on them, given the cost and frustrations of building at the moment,” Palmer noted.
The 18-month renovation was done by brothers Kristian and Owen Kelly, who had bought the property for $2.9m in 2018 from the executors of the estate of the acclaimed Sydney entertainer Simone Troy.
The brothers indicated everything was new, from the electricals to the plumbing, and even the door hinges.
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Bidding trend
Across the smaller capitals, auction activity fell by around 12 per cent in Brisbane and Adelaide, which had the nation’s strongest clearance rate at 71 per cent.
Canberra saw auction volume up 23 per cent to 85 – along with a trend of buyers bidding against themselves, encouraged by agents to go higher when there was little or no competition.
A Parkhill St, Pearce offering saw the only bidder offer $2.6m and then $2.7m, when bidding petered out, according to the Realtair website.
There were two bidders when a four-bedroom rendered home at 22 McCormack St, Curtin went to auction. The final three bids were all by the same bidder, increasing from $1.3m to $1.35m, and then $1.62m, when it was sold by Brett Hayman at Hayman Partners. The highest offer from the other bidder was $1.25m.
Canberra also saw a $4m sale of a four-bedroom 2020 home on Blakely Row, Yarralumla through Blackshaw agent Mario Sanfrancesco.
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Owners collaborate
A luxury South Perth apartment redevelopment site has hit the market after its five strata owners collaborated on its joint listing.
It is one of the last development opportunities on South Perth Esplanade, which ranks among Perth’s most sought-after luxury riverfront precincts, given its views back to the city skyline.
While the amalgamated-site offering trend has become popular in the east coast capitals, the dress circle strata renewal listing is billed as a first for the West. The 1636sq m site, which has a 26m frontage, will allow for a wider five-storey development than currently at 31 South Perth Esplanade.
“This is the first time in 75 years this property has been available,” local listing agent Mal Dempsey said.
“The implementation of the new town planning scheme late last year by the City of South Perth has facilitated these types of redevelopment scenarios.
“It is rare though to get five owners of a like mind,” Dempsey noted.
Offers close September 8 through Dempsey Real Estate in conjunction with Savills Perth agent Barney Dear.
The esplanade has seen over 20 apartment sales exceed $5m in the past 15 years.
It topped out at $15.2m in 2014 with the acquisition by Navitas higher education company co-founder Rodney Jones and his wife, Carol.
Virtual Gaming Worlds billionaire founder Laurence Escalante bought on the strip in 2020 for $7.5m, joining others including the billionaire Wonowidjojo family from Indonesia, the retired Hartleys stockbroker Darryl Smalley and LWP Property Group chair Danny Murphy.
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Fat profits
Fat Prophets co-founder Angus Geddes has accepted a $1.8m post-auction offer for his investment apartment in the The Hensley complex in Sydney’s Potts Point. The Bayswater Rd listing through Simon Exleton at McGrath Double Bay came with $1.75m price guidance. The two-bedroom apartment attracted a $1.7m top bid at its weekend auction.
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