Rebonline.com.au reported that a federal election over the weekend failed to dampen Sydney buyers’ appetite for property with the city breaking yet another record for the best auction clearance rate for the year.
According to Australian Property Monitors (APM), Sydney recorded an auction clearance rate of 87.6 per cent beating last weekend’s record result of 84 per cent.
RP Data also recorded a strong auction clearance rate of 85.2 per cent, up from 79.6 per cent last week.
Senior economist for APM Dr Andrew Wilson said listing numbers were unsurprisingly low this weekend compared to high numbers in recent weeks as seller avoided the clash with the election.
“The rising trend of buyer activity however continued unabated at the weekend with Sydney clearance rates over the past month now averaging 83.2 percent,” he said.
The central coast, the city and east, the north west and the west all recorded the auction results of 100 per cent clearance rates. The inner west also recorded strong clearance rates of 90 per cent.
“Sydney’s white-hot weekend home auction market has started the spring selling season off with a big bang,” Dr Wilson said. “Buyers hungry for property apparently paying whatever it takes to secure homes at auction.”
Melbourne also saw a rise in auction clearance rates with APM recording a result of 76.7 per cent, up from last week’s rate of 71.8 per cent.
RP Data recorded a similar result of 74.4 per cent, up from the previous week’s result of 72.1 per cent.
Dr Wilson said the results were consistent with those of the previous months as buyer activity and confidence continued to rise.
The top performing regions were in the south east which achieved an auction clearance rate of 90 per cent followed by the northern suburbs with 83.3 per cent, the outer east with 80.6 per cent and the inner east with 78.3 per cent.
“Melbourne’s spring selling has commenced strongly despite the distractions of the federal election,” Dr Wilson said.
“Weekend auction clearance rates continue to track at the highest levels recorded since the prices boom of 2009 with indications the market is strengthening.”
According to RP Data, the auction clearance rate for the capital cities combined was 75.3 per cent across 1,027 auctions. At the same time last year, the combined capital city auction clearance rate was 53.2 per cent across 1,298 auctions.
APM reported that the most expensive and most affordable properties were in Melbourne with a value of $2.215 million and $140,500 respectively.
