Sydney’s auction season revival

Confidence appears to be returning to the Sydney property market after the second busiest weekend of auctions for the year.

Auctioneer Jake Moore bring the hammer down at the end of the auction of 166 Baptist Street, Redfern in Sydney. Picture: James Gourley

Depth and confidence appears to be returning to the Sydney property market after the second-busiest weekend of auctions for the year produced a 77.7 per cent clearance rate for the 939 homes offered for sale.

My Housing Market chief economist Andrew Wilson said a rise in late-spring listings was no barrier to Sydney’s auction market, which is likely to improve further if the Reserve Bank cuts official interest rates on Tuesday.

“The weekend was a big test for Sydney. There is just no stopping buyers,” Dr Wilson said.

“No doubt a cut will keep the ball rolling and continue to fuel the market.”

The preliminary national weighted average reached 74.4 per cent from 1262 auctions.

The median price of homes sold at auction has risen 2.5 per cent over the course of the year. This month marked the strongest September since 2016.

CoreLogic’s auction commentator, Kevin Brogan, said the strong result in Sydney showed there was depth and confidence in the property market.

“The result does not show any evidence that the increase in supply has put downward pressure on the clearance rate. It tends to suggest there is latent demand and people are ready to participate in the market,” Mr Brogan said.

In Melbourne, the AFL grand final caused auction numbers to plummet to 103, with 82.5 per cent sold. But several of the auctions held on Saturday achieved large crowds. One “fixer-upper home” in the outer southeast suburb of Rowville attracted a 100-strong turnout, with five registered bidders pushing up the price from $480,000 to $760,000.

At least half of all properties put to auction in the capital cities measured by CoreLogic sold last week. School holidays caused the number of auctions in all of the smaller markets to fall week-on-week.