Sydney auctions sizzle while Melbourne chills
Sydney’s auction boom continued this weekend with another strong clearance rate recorded for the city.
Australian Property Monitors (APM) reported an auction clearance rate of 81.2 per cent across 739 properties, which made this weekend the 15th out of 17 in which rates were above 80 per cent.
RP Data recorded a slightly lower result of 76.8 per cent across 1,090 properties.
Senior economist for APM Dr Andrew Wilson said the number of properties listed for auction in Sydney this weekend was the highest since 27 November 2010.
“Comparisons with the state of the Sydney auction market a year ago reveal just how much buyer and seller activity have increased this year,” he said. The same weekend last year produced an auction clearance rate of 65.8 per cent from 498 listings, with both results well behind those recorded at the weekend.
Melbourne, on the other hand, took a breather as buyers and sellers enjoyed the Melbourne Cup carnival holiday weekend.
Despite substantially lower volumes of just 118 auctions, the city still achieved an auction clearance rate of 74.7 per cent, which was in line with the spring average so far, according to APM.
Last week, Melbourne hosted its highest number of weekend auctions ever recorded, with 1,365 listings and a clearance rate of 76.9 per cent.
RP Data recorded a preliminary clearance rate of 71.2 per cent across 146 auctions.
RP Data Victoria housing market specialist Robert Larocca said there had been a further tightening of the private sale market, with the time on market for houses dropping from 36 days to 34.
“Conditions in the private sale market have been improving for sellers for the last year, with time on market dropping 12 days,” he said.
“The same conditions are not apparent in the unit and apartment market where the time on market has not changed in any consistent manner over the past year.”
According to RP Data, there were 1,642 auctions across the combined capital cities with a preliminary auction clearance rate of 72 per cent.
APM reported that the most expensive property was in Sydney with a value of $3.82 million, while the most affordable property was in Queensland with a value of $156,100.