Sydney clearance rate slips into the high 60s as record spring auction Saturday looms

High auction numbers continue to test the Sydney market with another weekend of elevated activity.

Record numbers of late spring auctions are impacting results, with buyers spoilt for choice as sellers surge into the market before the end of the year shut down.

There was a weekend 73.5% initial clearance rate, but the revised prior weekend success rate slipped to 69%, according to Australian Property Monitors (APM).

The weekend’s 73.5% result was the lowest recorded for four months and the third consecutive result below 80% this spring.

Sydney commenced the spring selling season this year with nine consecutive clearance rates above 80%.

"The market has clearly lost that early energy with five out of the last seven weekends below the 80% benchmark," APM's senior economist Dr Andrew Wilson noted on the preliminary Saturday night figures.

November is still set to record the highest number of auctions ever conducted in Sydney over a month, with 29 November shaping as close to an all-time record day for auctions with over 1,000 properties listed.

There were 870 homes scheduled for last Saturday, similar to last weekend’s 875 but well ahead of the 754 listed over the same weekend last year.

This time last year there was an auction clearance rate of 80.6%, which took the spring scorecard to 17 weekends out of 19 with auction clearance rates above 80%.

There are four weekends to go until the close of the property market for 2014.

At this time last year Sydney's spring weekend auction clearance rates had averaged 83.3%, compared with just 63% over the same period in 2012.

The current four-weekend average clearance rate has fallen to 76.4% which is well down on the 80.6% average recorded over the previous four-weekend period.

Sydney’s northern beached reported the highest clearance rate at the weekend at 82.6%.

The next best region was the city and east with 82.4% followed by the north west 79.3%, the lower north 76.9%, the upper north shore 76.1% and the inner west with a relatively low 74.5% from the most number of sales at 79.

The most popular suburb for auctions last weekend in Sydney was Mosman on the lower north shore and Randwick in the city and east each with 13 auctions listed.