The Sydney home auction market resumed on Saturday, following the previous weekend’s relative pause in activity due to holiday and grand final distractions.
Sydney recorded an auction clearance rate of 78.8 per cent at the weekend, which was higher than the previous Saturday’s 76.6 per cent, but again well ahead of the 70 per cent recorded over the same weekend last year.
Although still unequivocally a good result for sellers, Saturday’s rate was slightly down on the levels recorded over the past two months, which have established an 80 per cent-plus benchmark on most weekends.
Buyers would have enjoyed a significant jump in listings on Saturday, with 651 homes going under the hammer, compared to just 265 the previous weekend. Numbers, however, remain well below last year’s offerings, when 1020 auctions were conducted over the same weekend.
Weaker results from Sydney’s middle and outer western suburbs have pushed the overall clearance rate down in recent weekends, but inner suburban regions continue to record extraordinary boom-time rates.
The city and east recorded the highest regional clearance rate at the weekend with 92.1 per cent, and the highest sales at 70. The next highest was the lower north with 91.1 per cent, followed by the upper north shore with 86.2 per cent, the inner west and the northern beaches each with 85.2 per cent, the north west with 76.7 per cent, the south with 75.9 per cent, the central coast with 64.3 per cent, Canterbury Bankstown with 60.7 per cent, the west with 57.5 per cent and the south west with the lowest clearance rate of 52.8 per cent.
Sydney recorded a median auction price of $1,196,500 on Saturday, which was higher than the $1.07 million recorded the previous weekend. Saturday’s median was also 4 per cent higher than the $1.15 million recorded over the same weekend last year. A total of $394.7 million was reported sold at auction in Sydney at the weekend.
The Sydney auction market has resumed on the front foot, recording another strong clearance rate, following the previous weekend’s relative pause in activity.
Lower mortgage rates have been a key catalyst in the rise of the late winter, early spring market, following official rate cuts in May and August.
Last week the Reserve Bank announced the direction of official interest rates over October, with no surprise that rates will remain on hold at the record low 1.5 per cent.
Economic activity remains mixed and, although the national unemployment rate is at three-year lows, the economy continues to shed full-time jobs. The resource states of Western Australia and Queensland also continue to struggle in transition from the end of the recent mining boom.
The bank will be awaiting Australian Bureau of Statistics inflation data for the September quarter to be released on October 26. The figures may lead to a possible cut on Melbourne Cup day, but the bank will be wary of the clear re-emergence of strong house price growth, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne.