Australia’s housing downturn accelerated in July, with national home values falling -1.3%. The typically chilly mid-winter home auction market produced relatively steady results in most capitals.
1543 properties were listed for auction, a few more than last weekend’s 1491 and, not surprisingly, this was well below the 2,050 auctions held on the same weekend last year.
Sydney and Adelaide reported higher clearance rates at the weekend with Melbourne still solid and Canberra steady. With the media full of negative messages and the spectre of rising interest rates faster than many expected, buyers remain cautious and vendors are also losing confidence fast, with auctions being cancelled or withdrawn from sale.
Similarly, many auctions results are not being reported by the selling agents – which is a sign of a weakening market.
Currently, we’re finding more homes are being sold before auction as sellers rush to make a deal rather than risk not getting a sale as vendors are becoming less willing to test the marketplace under true auction conditions.
In the meantime, rents continued to increase through July, up 0.9% nationally or 9.8% over the past 12 months.
On a more positive note, it’s likely that this interest rate hiking cycle may be “short and sharp”, with financial markets and many economic forecasters now factoring in inflation peaking at the end of this year and interest rate occurring in the second half of next year.
The Sydney auction clearance rate was 56%. Interestingly many Sydney auction results (close to 40%) have not yet been reported by the selling agents.
Of the 570 properties listed for auction this weekend 110 properties were withdrawn from sale – a sign of the challenges the Sydney market is experiencing, and these are counted as “passed in” meaning this will bring down the overall auction clearance rate.
Realestate.com.au reported that there were only 1,118 private sales in New South Wales over the last week – much the same as last week’s 1,134. But, of course, many off-market Sydney property sales would not have been reported.
The Lower North recorded the top Sydney regional clearance rate on Saturday with 76.0% followed by the Inner West 68.4% and the Upper North Shore 66.5%.
The clearance rate for houses was 63.6%, with units again higher this weekend at 59.6%.
Last Saturday Sydney Auction Top5 House
▼TOP 1. AUD$13,030,000
Address: 27 Braeside St, Wahroonga NSW 2076
Land Size: 2,484 sqm
Internal Area: 840 sqm
House | 6 Bedrooms | 4 Bathrooms | 3 Parking
▼TOP 2. AUD$5,300,000
Address: 102 Annangrove Rd, Annangrove NSW 2156
Land Size: 1.87 ha
House | 4 Bedrooms | 1 Bathrooms | 4 Parking
▼TOP 3. AUD$4,700,000
Address: 318 Burwood Rd, Burwood NSW 2134
Land Size: 1,694.2 sqm
Internal Area: 358 sqm
House | 6 Bedrooms | 3 Bathrooms | 6 Parking
▼TOP 4. AUD$4,660,000
Address: 32 Miowera Rd, North Turramurra NSW 2074
Land Size: 1,309 sqm
Internal Area: 420 sqm
House | 5 Bedrooms | 4 Bathrooms | 2 Parking
▼TOP 5. AUD$4,310,000
Address: 47 Homebush Rd, Strathfield NSW 2135
Land Size: 1,800 sqm
Internal Area: 186 sqm
House | 4 Bedrooms | 2 Bathrooms | 4 Parking
Last Saturday Sydney Auction Top5 Unit
▼TOP 1. AUD$3,650,000
Address: 12/48A Queenscliff Rd, Queenscliff NSW 2096
Unit | 3 Bedrooms | 2 Bathrooms | 2 Parking
▼TOP 2. AUD$3,280,000
Address: 2/364 Victoria Pl, Drummoyne NSW 2047
Unit | 3 Bedrooms | 2 Bathrooms | 2 Parking
▼TOP 3. AUD$2,070,000
Address: 1/85 Bream St, Coogee NSW 2034
Unit | 2 Bedrooms | 1 Bathrooms | 1 Parking
▼TOP 4. AUD$1,497,000
Address: 28A Robinson St, Croydon NSW 2132
Semi | 2 Bedrooms | 1 Bathrooms | 2 Parking
▼TOP 5. AUD$1,382,000
Address: 184 Burwood Rd, Croydon Park NSW 2133
Duplex | 4 Bedrooms | 2 Bathrooms | 2 Parking
(Data from domain.com.au realestate.com.au corelogic.com.au & realtisan.com.au)