The distractions of the Labour Day long weekend and the NRL grand final did not impact on the Sydney auction market, with the city again recording a clearance rate of over 80 per cent.
Despite only 259 properties being scheduled for auction, the Sydney market recorded a clearance rate of 81.8 per cent, according to Australian Property Monitors (APM). This was identical to last weekend’s result, when there were about 600 properties.
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RP Data recorded a preliminary auction clearance result of 80.1 per cent across 390 auctions.
Senior economist at Australian Property Monitors (APM) Dr Andrew Wilson said: “The difference between last weekend and this weekend was that significantly lower numbers of properties were offered for auction as the market took a well-earned holiday breather.
“Despite lower number of listings, the market energy evident for most of the year continued to produce record-level results.”
Melbourne had another strong weekend of auctions with 735 properties listed for auction and a clearance rate of 75 per cent, according to APM.
RP Data recorded a slightly lower preliminary auction clearance rate of 71.4 per cent across 865 auctions.
“Last weekend signalled the end of the early spring selling season as the market took a breather due to the distractions of the AFL grand final,” Dr Wilson said.
“Melbourne recorded an auction clearance rate higher than September, of 71.4 per,cent compared to 58.8 per cent recorded over September a year ago."
Dr Wilson said despite rising confidence, there were still hurdles ahead for the Sydney and Melbourne markets with a rising unemployment rate.
According to RP Data, there were 1,483 total auctions scheduled across the capital cities over the weekend, with a preliminary auction clearance rate of 69.8 per cent.
APM reported that the most expensive and most affordable properties were in Sydney, with a value of $2.73 million and $235,000 respectively.