what slowdown?

The trend is your friend...

"Sydney’s property market flexed its muscles over the weekend recording a preliminary clearance rate of 77 per cent, according to RP Data, even though an unseasonally high number of properties went under the hammer."

Melbourne managed a solid 65 per cent preliminary clearance rate with auction numbers also elevated.

There were 1291 auctions scheduled in Sydney and 1352 in Melbourne, making it the fourth Super Saturday – where more than 1000 auctions are scheduled in each markets – this year.

Appetite was strong near the top end of both markets. McGrath Real Estate Agents recording a very high 89 per cent clearance rate for Sydney properties priced over $3 million.

Melbourne buyer’s agent Mal James said clearance rates in the Melbourne’s wealthy inner east and Bayside markets were “solid” with a 74 per cent success rate across the 39 auctions his agency covered in the $1 million-plus range.

“This year’s selling season, from ­February to May, has had the intensity of spring. We’ve already had four Super Saturdays and it’s only May,” Mr James said.

“That makes the high demand despite the high levels of stock impressive this weekend.

“Buyers are no doubt conscious that if they really need to buy, they are running out of time to do so.”

However, influential Melbourne buyer’s agent David Morrell said buyers were panicking ahead of the market slowing down in winter.


The bathroom of a property in Sydney’s Alexandra that sold for just over $1 million on Saturday.

“People are just not being smart. They are letting their hearts rule over their heads. Buyers are chasing vendors, but it should be the other way round,” Mr Morrell told The Australian Financial Review.

He cited one example, where a buyer had paid over $3 million for a three-bedroom house in South Yarra post-­auction, after the property was passed in at $2.85 million. “Any way you do the numbers, it doesn’t make a lot of sense,” Mr Morrell said.

The top auction result of the weekend according to Fairfax-owned ­Australian Property Monitors was “Higham”, a five-bedroom residence in Hawthorn East, which sold for $5.2 million through Ross Savas and Sam Wilkinson of Kay & Burton.

In Sydney, McGrath Real Estate Agents, sold $175 million worth of property at auction with a metro clearance rate of 77 per cent.

In Belmont Street, Alexandria in Sydney’s inner south, two side-by-side unrenovated Victorian terraces sold well above their price guides through Brad Gillespie, of McGrath Edgecliff.

Snap Fitness franchise owner and developer Jake Henley and his partner Danielle Jones paid $925,000 for a two-bedroom “uninhabitable” sandstone terrace at 198 Belmont Street, which had a price guide of $700,000. Just next door, local residents the Vasiliou family paid $1.08 million for a three-bedroom two-storey terrace listed with a $900,000 plus price guide.

Mr Gillespie said a crowd of 150 gathered for both auctions with five bidders on each property. “The results exceeded expectations,” he said.

There was also strength in Sydney’s off-the-plan market with all 129 apartments in AQUA, a project in Bondi Junction developed by Leighton Properties and Qualitas selling out with combined sales of $130 million.

Sold through Colliers International, the 20-level development comprises one-, two- and three-bedroom ­apartments opposite Westfield Bondi Junction.

The best result achieved was for an 111 square metre three-bedroom apartment on level 20, which sold to a local buyer for $2.17 million.

Leighton Properties head of resi­dential Gavin Tonnet said the launch of AQUA had met a “surging Sydney ­market”.

Nationally, the preliminary auction clearance rate was 68 per cent with more than 3000 auctions scheduled. The clearance rate was 49 per cent in Brisbane, 59 per cent in Adelaide, 64 per cent in Canberra and 59 per cent in Perth off small volumes.

RP Data’s Robert Larocca said the higher volumes were partly the result of an increased use of auctions to take advantage of improved demand from buyers.

“The Sydney and Melbourne markets are both setting records for the number of auctions in the first five months of the year,” Mr Larocca said.

He said anything above a 70 per cent auction clearance rate would have been a good result for Sydney while anything above 60 per cent was a good result for Melbourne.

http://www.afr.com/p/business/property/is_sydney_super_real_estate_market_dp3tckQRsrJ1SBC1071i8K