Property sales hark back to the frenzied days of 2017

Buyers are snapping up residential properties in Sydney and Melbourne within a month of them hitting the market.

Jck Reyes with his son Jacob, 3, at their house in Brunswick, Melbourne, which goes to auction on March 21. Picture: David Geraghty

It’s been declared a Super Saturday, with the auction clearance rate booming from last year’s measly 50.4 per cent in the capital cities and experts predicting a ­return to 2017 levels.

This year’s strong start for the auction market has continued, with 2933 homes going under the hammer on the weekend and a preliminary clearance rate of 77.1 per cent.

Experts say the frenzied activity of the 2017 property boom is back on the horizon, with buyers snapping up residential properties in Sydney and Melbourne within a month of them hitting the market. This week was Melbourne’s busiest week for auctions since October 2018 with 1567 homes going under the hammer.

Clearance Rates March Property Market

New data from property ­researcher CoreLogic, compiled ­exclusively for The Australian, shows for sale signs are being taken down after just 33 days in Sydney and 31 days in Melbourne — just shy of the ­median time it took to sell a residence during the last boom.

A high rate of auction success and reduced supply is spurring buyers to act, with 20 days shaved off marketing campaigns — more than a third — since the end of the downturn about six months ago.

CoreLogic’s head of residential research, Eliza Owen, said the ­reduction reflected the strong ­rebound in the property market — the fastest on record.

“The nature of this upswing is a different sort of recovery, led by first-home buyers and upgraders,” Ms Owen said. “There is a lot less stock and more competition.”

At the peak of the 2017 cycle, homes were selling within an ­average of 25 days in Sydney and 26 days in Melbourne. The April 2017 quarter recorded the fastest sales since 2015.

Jack and Grace Reyes, both 39, hope to take advantage of the speedy marketplace. They recently listed their modern family home in the trendy inner Melbourne suburb of Brunswick after a strong sale nearby last year.

“We’ve been watching the market since Christmas and it has come leaps and bounds. We thought now is a good time to upgrade,” Mr Reyes said.

“There was a house two doors down that was sold at an auction. It was a short three or four-week campaign and it sold for above what they wanted. It is a bit exciting. We only made the decision to auction a week before the campaign launched because auction rates are climbing at the moment.”

The quick turnaround is also being reflected in the top end of the market. Hunters Hill agent Tracey Dixon recently sold a ­restored and extended heritage home on Madeline Street in the prestigious Sydney suburb after just three weeks on the market for almost $8m, well above the $7m asking price.

CoreLogic’s Ms Owen said while the number of properties on the market was rising, the relatively small number of listings was fuelling intense competition from bidders, as many sellers were waiting for prices to climb even higher.

Perth had the largest fall in the length of time that homes were on the market. Sustained modest price increases, rising rental prices and shrinking vacancy rates in the city have offered encouraging signs for the market, which has been in freefall since the collapse of the mining boom in 2014.

The turnaround meant Perth’s time on market fell from a peak high of 68 days in the quarter to July to 42 in the January quarter.

The markets in Brisbane, Canberra, Adelaide and Darwin held largely steady. Hobart was the only capital city to record a ­notable rise in the average number of days on sale as its property market moved through its pricing peak.