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Sydney records strongest-ever month of auctions

Date
May 31, 2015 - 5:47AM​

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Antony Lawes, Camille Bianchi​

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$1 million over reserve​

Buyers go to battle for a dated apartment on Australia's most expensive street.
Sydney's insatiable demand for property has translated into the city's strongest ever month for auctions, and one of the highest monthly clearance rates anywhere in Australia, figures from Domain Group show.
The clearance rate on Saturday was 87.4 per cent, higher than the previous two weekends despite many more properties going under the hammer.
On Saturday night Domain Group had collected 657 results from the 853 properties listed for auction, and of those 597 were reported sold.

The view from 9/45 Wolseley Road, Point Piper, which sold for $4.1 million on Saturday - $1 million more than the reserve. Photo: Christopher Pearce​

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Domain's senior economist Andrew Wilson said Saturday's result could be explained by people rushing to sell before the start of the traditional winter slowdown.
"Maybe some more rational expectations from sellers today clicked up that clearance rate by a couple of points," Dr Wilson said, referring to the two previous weekends when the rates dropped to 84.4 per cent and 84.2 per cent.
Saturday's result was only slightly weaker than Sydney's highest ever auction weekend on May 9 - at 89.2 per cent - and caps off a remarkable month that has seen the city record the strongest ever month of auction, topping the previous monthly record of 83.6 per cent, set in April.

An apartment in this building, 703/93 Brompton Road, Kensington, sold for $1.6 million. Photo: supplied​

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The overall clearance rate for May would be known on Wednesday when all the results from this weekend had been collected, Dr Wilson said.
He expected it would also be close to the nation's highest rate of 86 per cent, set in July 2001 in Melbourne.
One of the biggest results on Saturday was an apartment in Point Piper that sold for $1 million more than its reserve.

This four-bedroom house, at 13 Gaza Road, West Ryde, sold for $1,830,000 - $630,000 over its reserve. Photo: supplied​

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The three-bedroom unit, once owned by Veronica and Arthur Laundy, the founder of the Laundy Hotel Group, and whose son Arthur was reportedly seen bidding at the auction, occupies a whole floor of a building on Australia's most expensive street, Wolseley Road, and has sweeping water views to the Harbour Bridge. It sold for $4.1 million.
"That's what happens when there is emotional bidding, it's hard to put a price on a view like this," said McGrath agent Stephen McMorrow.
Another bullish apartment sale was in the Raleigh Park Estate in Kensington which delivered the owners $350,000 more than they were bargaining for. Ten buyers registered to bid for two-bedroom apartment with views of Moore Park Golf Course. It eventually sold for $1.6 million.

Auctioneer Stuart Benson of Benson Auctions sold this house in Cherrybrook hammer down at $1.46 million - $60,000 above the reserve. Photo: supplied​

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"It was a bit surreal really," said agent Maxx Mancuso, of Ascott Real Estate. "We thought it might get $1.3 million but in the end two buyers wanted it and the price just kept going up and up."
In West Ryde, a house on Gaza Road that the agent said had "a lot of negatives" still sold for $630,000 more than its reserve, at $1,830,000.
Jerry Dionisatos, of Green Real Estate Agency, said even though there were 15 groups who had registered to bid, others were turned off by the potential for flooding and the fact the house was tenanted for the next three years.
That it was on a large, level block and close to the train station were what make it popular.
The auction of a house in Cherrybrook was fought out by two buyers who had both only seen the property moments before bidding started.
But that didn't seem to deter them. The auctioneer Stuart Benson, from Benson Auctions, brought the hammer down at $1.46 million - $60,000 above the reserve.
"With Cherrybrook's median house price moving at a rate of around $600 a day over the last 12 months, buyers have no doubt that any buy in the suburb is a good investment," he said.
"There were plenty of buyers out in force today, and the general feedback is that it's better to buy at today's market price than paying more next week - things are moving that fast."
Dr Wilson said while winter was usually a quieter time on the auction calendar, the possibility of another interest rate cut could fuel further buyer demand.
A new Bureau of Statistics' survey conducted in April and May found that Australian companies were planning to cut total investment spending by 21 per cent.
These figures were "sobering" and could prompt the Reserve Bank to cut rates again on Tuesday, Dr Wilson said.
But "that will only improve affordability and give the buyers the capacity to pay more in what is definitively the strongest sellers market in Sydney's history".