Sydney’s auction market could be on track to break a record if the “ferocious” level of buying continues past the long weekends in April, new analysis shows.
Following the weekend’s sky-high preliminary auction clearance rate of 88 per cent, Sydney has now recorded six Saturdays in a row where more than 80 per cent of properties scheduled to go to auction have sold under the hammer.
While those results are strong — and Sydney’s auction market may feel like the closest thing to crazy right now — they have actually been much stronger.
Auction records from Domain show that in 2015 the city saw 20 continuous weeks of above 80 per cent clearance rates, barring the Easter and Anzac Day long weekends.
The main difference between 2021 and 2015? House prices. In June 2015, the median price for a house was $1,007,758. Less than six years later, Sydney’s median house price is $1.21 million.
The median auction price for houses hit a record high of $1,655,000 in February – up 9.6 per cent over the year, while the median auction price for units increased 1.2 per cent to $961,000.
Domain senior research analyst Nicola Powell said Sydney’s auction market could break a record if this level of buying at auction continued past the long weekends in April.
“It just shows the appetite and demand from buyers is strong. Being able to withstand these high numbers of auctions means we’re seeing a very competitive environment,” Dr Powell said.
The market has continued to perform strongly even as the number of properties scheduled to go under the hammer has risen from about 400 in early February to almost 685 last weekend.
Sydney is expected to have its first Super Saturday of auctions at the end of March when more than 1000 properties are scheduled to go under the hammer before the following Easter long weekend.
That will be the real test of whether the market will be able to break the 2015 record, according to Bresic Whitney’s head of sales and chief auctioneer, Thomas McGlynn.
“If we can pass that then we will definitely see that continue very strongly until winter,” Mr McGlynn said. “It’s the biggest auction weekend of 2021 — and that’s going to be a very, very good indication of where the Sydney property market is across that peak from 2015 to 2017.”
The market had already surpassed the peak between 2015 and 2017 when it came to auction median prices and bidding, he said.
“Overall the ferocity of bidding is on par if not better than that period, however houses in particular it is far and beyond the competition we saw in that same period.
“It is a lot more competitive and a lot more stronger across houses this time round,” he said.
article by domain.com.au