Sydney’s price recovery has yet to reach all suburbs: REA's Nerida Conisbee

Sydney’s price recovery has yet to reach all suburbs, according to realestate.com.au chief economist Nerida Conisbee.

“We are starting to see the ripple effect, but recoveries take time.”

Ms Consisbee said that the recovery was yet to show up in cheaper suburbs.

“Sydney premium is doing very well,” she said. “It’s mostly a premium market story.

“It’s not spreading to apartments,” she added. “If you go to Parramatta, just try to find an apartment that’s gone up (to boomtime prices).

“The recovery is under way but it takes time to flow through.”

It was mortgagees at Parramatta who sold sold Sydney’s cheapest weekend auction offering , when $470,000 was paid for a two-bedroom apartment.

The unit, that had 88sq m internal space plus a lock-up garage, sold to an investor.

“Six months ago there were hardly any investors in the market,” the apartment’s Laing & Simmons selling agent Jas Singh said.

“The market was in the doldrums but lately investors have started to return therefore signs of improvement are becoming visible.”

There were 11 registered bidders for the 1980-built Parramatta apartment.

Mr Singh noted there had been $500,000 plus sales of similar apartments in the complex in the years prior to the downturn.

“Prices are beginning to come back, as I think six months ago it would have sold for $420,000,” he said.

In his SwitzerDaily commentary, John McGrath endorsed CoreLogic data that put Sydney middle market prices as being up 3.2 per cent and the lower market at 2.1 per cent in the September quarter.

“People are constantly asking me, ‘Where are we in the cycle?’,” he said.

“I can see why many people have been looking at the market a bit quizzically over the past few years.

“We’ve had five years of growth (25 per cent to 75 per cent), 18 months of correction (down 5 per cent to 20 per cent) and a small rebound to the positive.

“It’s not material yet in price but auction rates have shifted up after APRA finally loosened the strings and official interest rate cuts began having an impact.”

Mr McGrath added some “might have had a slightly different experience depending on the micro-market you live”.

There were 581 auctions across Sydney on Saturday, with 467 results captured and 395 sold.

Sydney returned a preliminary clearance rate of 84 per cent across similar volumes week-on-week.

Eleven of Sydney’s 15 sub-regions had a clearance rate of 80 per cent or higher, confirming an emerging market confidence across the city.

“It is the second week that Blacktown has returned a preliminary clearance over 90 per cent,” CoreLogic auction analyst Kevin Brogan noted.

North Sydney and Hornsby returned the next highest clearance at 88 per cent.

Brogan said there was only going to be a small rise next Saturday at 620 listings.