Mosman in Sydney and St Kilda in Melbourne to have most auctions this weekend in lead-up to pre-Easter super Saturday

The prestige suburb of Mosman on Sydney’s lower north shore will have the most auctions in the city this weekend, with 11 auctions scheduled out of a total of 420, according to Australian Property Monitors (APM). 

Earlier this week, Property Observer reported that prominent Goldman Sachs Sydney stockbroker Richard Coppleson had advised his clients that he'd  heard stories that Mosman was in a "huge state of distress" as bankers bailed from the prestige property market. 

The other Sydney suburb with a flurry of auction activity this weekend is Maroubra in the eastern suburbs, where eight auctions are scheduled. 

This weekend’s Sydney auction volumes are 20% higher than the same weekend last year. 

In total, APM has 752 auctions listed in Sydney for the March 31 “super Saturday” weekend, 28% more than the same time last year. 

Melbourne is also building to a 1,000-plus super Saturday weekend. 

According to the Real Estate Institute of Victoria (REIV) there are 820 auctions scheduled in Melbourne this weekend, with 17 scheduled in St Kilda and 14 in Richmond. 

This is slightly below the 872 auctions recorded for the same weekend last year, which had a clearance rate of 59%. 

The REIV expects about 1,070 auctions in Melbourne for the March 31 weekend, the first time since the December 11, 2010 weekend that auction numbers will tip over 1,000.

Last year there were five weekends with more than 950 auctions.

The year-to-date clearance rate in Melbourne is 62% from 3,625 auctions. At the same time last year the clearance rate was 67% and in 2010 a much higher 87%.