In a weekend where Victorians were busy watching the AFL Grand Final, Sydney recorded its busiest Saturday of the year for auctions.
Sydney recorded a preliminary clearance rate of 78 per cent from 939 auctions, according to the latest CoreLogic data, which was up from 608 this time last year.
With attention elsewhere in Melbourne, there were only 103 auctions, however, the preliminary clearance rate finished strongly at 82 per cent.
Across the nation we saw another weekend above 70 per cent, with the nationwide preliminary clearance rate settling at 74.4 per cent.
Justin Nickerson (QLD)
Justin Nickerson had a quieter week by recent standards, but still saw some strong auction results.
“It was a little bit quieter compared to previous weekends and we came back to the pack a bit with a clearance rate around 41-42 per cent. But generally speaking in QLD anything above 40 per cent means you’ve had a pretty reasonable weekend.
“Registered bidder numbers were down quite a bit on what we’ve been seeing over the last couple of weeks. There were a number of properties that sold prior this week, but we definitely noticed the downturn in bidders on the day.
“Going forward, we expect volume to remain high into the end of the year and we’re pretty fully booked all the way through until late November at this stage.”
Alec Brown (Canberra)
Alec Brown continued to see very strong results personally, well above the ACT average.
“We had a really strong weekend with nine auctions, and sold eight for a clearance rate of 88 per cent, which was about double the ACT.
“It’s now been two weeks where we’ve been hovering around the 45 per cent mark in the ACT, while we’ve personally been seeing very strong results. So I’m not really sure why there’s been so much of a difference there.
“There is still some caution around from buyers, particularly around getting lending organised in time. But for the month we’ve had clearance rate of 70 per cent with 4.75 registered bidders, so it’s been very strong.”
David Holmes (Canberra/QLD)
David Holmes is expecting to see volume steadily grow into the end of the year.
“There’s been a clear increase in volume in the last couple of weeks, so I think in late October, early November we’re going to see a lot of auctions happening.
“There looks to be a large influx of new listings and with a potential interest rate cut to come this week, I think we’re going to see a lot more confidence coming back into the market again.
Luke Banitsiotis (Victoria)
Luke Banitsiotis had a very quiet weekend, with the low number of auctions across Victoria this weekend.
“With the AFL Grand Final combined with low stock levels, it really put the pinch on things this year and we in fact had no auctions this weekend.”
Josh Larson (Sydney)
Josh Larsen saw another healthy weekend in Sydney, with a strong clearance rate.
“We sold 12 of 15 at auction, with some big prices across the board and a lot of people around. A good number of registrations and also a good number of people around even though it was the AFL Grand Final.
“We had one sale at $5.35 million, which was a pretty big result and above reserve, and a few others above reserve too.
“Going forward, the back end of October is looking really busy and I’ve already got 13 aucions booked in for November 2, so things are certainly picking up.”
Stu Benson (NSW)
Stu Benson oversaw a 100 per cent clearance rate in Sydney, with good competition, generating some great results for vendors.
“In the North West of Sydney we had another bumper Saturday of auction sales, with my agents selling 8/8 under the hammer, each averaging over $100,000 above their written reserves.
“The presentation and the exposure of properties is undoubtedly making a difference in open home traffic and the eventual volume of bidders. Styling, small renovations and marketing need to be explained to vendors as short term investments, and to cut corners is to trim your chances of a premium price.
“It’s easy to proclaim the virtues of saving your vendors money, but at what cost? How many buyers are you missing, and what offers aren’t even being presented in your pursuit of these savings?
“Remember, the cheapest agent is the one who gets you the best price. Skimp on the above, and you’re fishing for a buyer in the shallow end of the pool”
Matthew Condon (Victoria)
Despite the low volumes in Victoria, Matthew Condon still saw some good results for vendors who went to auction early in the day.
“With the AFL Grand Final , we’ve certainly seen a significant decrease in the volume of auctions, however Ray White Victoria has seen another strong week.
“Given all the auctions took place before 1pm, we didn’t see any real difference in numbers, with both strong inspection numbers and both registered and active bidders.
“As a group Ray White Victoria is expecting another strong auction day clearance rate.”
Gavin Croft (Sydney)
BresicWhitney had another solid weekend in Sydney and Gavin Croft saw their clearance rate ahead of the Sydney average.
“There were 25 BW auctions booked this week, 22 sold on or before auction day giving a weekly auction clearance rate of 88 per cent.
“So far this year, BW have conducted 432 auctions, 346 sold on or before auction, giving a new YTD BW auction clearance for the year of 80 per cent.”