Sydney's eastern suburb auction overload sees 42% clearance rate after 14 withdrawals

Last week there was an ordinary 53% auction success rate when 34 homes were offered in Sydney's eastern suburbs.

But last night it worsened to a 42% clearance rate on the official list of 35 offerings.

Most of the sales - some nine in total - were locked in prior, so on the night there were just six sales.

The six declared sales on the night sales ranged from $450,000 in Ruschutters Bay to $2.06 million in Clovelly.

There were undisclosed negotiations after a $5.65 million Rose Bay property was passed in by LJ Hooker agent Alain Waitsman which resulted in an undisclosed higher priced sale.

There were some bright spots with five registered parties on a Randwick offering through Goodyer Real Estate.

The initial shock 53% auction clearance rate came when 34 eastern suburbs listings were put under the hammer on 7 April through Cooley Auctions.

"It had to happen," one agent told Property Observer after the clearance rate dipped to just 42%.

"Up to $2 million is still okay," another agent advised.

Last night had six properties passed in with prices between $900,000 in Redfern and $5.3 million in Woollahra. Significantly five of them were on a vendor bid, suggesting acute buyer hesitation or even absence.

There was also 14 official withdrawals or postponements.

That's 40% of the offerings that were pulled from auction given the unsustainable pre-Easter swelling in supply. But another factor was Jewish passover.

The 42% clearance rate was well below the 75% plus that has become the norm in the latter stages of the 11 auction weekends so far this year.

As indicated over the past few weeks, Property Observer has sensed the slight turn in market sentiment with the results suggesting some vendors have got too greedy, some buyers are getting understandably cautious at not overpaying, and some estate agents have got a bit slack at doing their job of knocking heads together.