Sydney leads national property market as buyers continue to chase houses

The red hot run in the property market has continued at a cracking pace with four in five houses across the combined capitals selling at auction.

Sellers are out in force compared to the dearth of properties on the market at the same time last year. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gaye Gerard

The red hot run in the property market has continued at a cracking pace with four in five houses across the combined capitals selling at auction.

The Covid outbreaks across Sydney and Melbourne failed to dampen buyer’s appetites, with 77.8 per cent of 1955 properties sold nationally clearing the reserve at auction.

That’s compared to the revised figure from last week which saw 73.6 per cent of the 1413 properties on offer sell.

Sellers are out in force compared to the dearth of properties on the market at the same time last year, which only saw 1251 properties offered for auction across all the capitals.

At the same time last year only 59.6 per cent of homes sold at auction.

Buyers have continued piling into property, with Sydney leading the charge where nearly 85 per cent of houses selling at auction.

Ray White chief economist Nerida Conisbee said there’s no doubt the housing market was hot, but data indicated the numbers of bidders per property had declined in recent weeks as volumes increased.

“The market is still a lot stronger than what it was in previous years, but that frantic level of energy in the previous two months isn’t quite as apparent,” she said.

The national median of sold properties hit $1.11m, lead by Sydney where the house market landed a thumping $1.54m

Sydney is also experiencing a bounce back from the Queen‘s Birthday long weekend, with 1174 homes taken to auction across the city this week, compared to just 745 last week.

Of the 781 sold results reported so far 48.5 per cent were sold prior to auction.

Only 7.7 per cent of Sydney auctions were withdrawn.

The outer west and Blue Mountains market held the highest clearance rate, with 90.9 per cent of 13 properties selling.

Sydney’s worst performing region was Parramatta where 69.6 per cent of 106 properties cleared at auction

However the strong showing in Sydney’s inner west and eastern suburbs, where clearance rates remained well above 80 per cent has not been reflected in sales south of the Murray in Melbourne.

Ms Conisbee said Sydney’s unit market was being strongly supported by a number of homeowners downsizing on the back of the strong market.

“Sydney the unit market is doing very well if you go to nice suburbs, Mosman or Woollahra, but there’s still a lot of problems out west, particularly with a lot of those areas with build quality problems,” she said.

Melbourne’s market continues to grapple with the outbreak of Covid-19 across the city, which saw a walk back of the expected auction figures which had been pegged at 2610 for the weekend.

The latest data shows 786 auctions across Melbourne, down from the earlier expected 9356 schedule.

However, buyers are clearly snapping up properties pre-auction in Melbourne, with 38.1 per cent of the 465 sold results reported so far selling prior to auction.

The unit market in Melbourne remains depressed with only 61 of the 208 listed for auction selling at auction.

CoreLogic reports 35 were withdrawn and an equal number passed in at auction after sellers failed to secure the right price.

Melbourne’s inner east market was the worst performing across the city with only 61.5 per cent of properties clearing at auction, suggesting a considerable mismatch between buyer and seller expectations

The tightly held Mornington Peninsula market topped the table for the city, with 90 per cent of properties selling at auction

Ms Conisbee said Melbourne’s unit market was being depressed by the continued Covid-19 lockdowns and border closures.

“We have seen rents drop significantly, but values haven’t dropped to the same extent,” she said.

“People are mindful that at some stage students will come back and unless you were a distressed seller it would be a better idea to hold on if you could.”