As weekend auctions weaken, Peter Garrett quits Randwick for Paddington
Former federal MP Peter Garrett secured $1,321,000 when he severed ties with his coastal Sydney electorate.
Cooley Auctions secured the sale of his Randwick house at auction on Saturday, as Sydney's overall clearance rate dropped to 84.4% from last week's record initial 89.2% among the 556 offerings.
It ranked as among the lowest clearance rates since March.
Auctioneer Damien Cooley secured a $1.2 million opening bid for 6 Gordon Street, Randwick, which the former Federal Labor Minister and Midnight Oil vocalist bought in 2010 for $932,500.
Belle agent Shane Vincent had revised the price guide from $1.05 million up to $1.1 million-plus.
The couple have reportedly recently purchased an unrenovated 1890s terrace in Paddington for $2.7 million.
The weekend offering was among the 535 auctions, well down on the 736 auctioned last weekend and also below the 599 auctioned over the same weekend last year.
The city and east hosted the most number of auctions with 73 followed by the upper north shore 71, the south 69, the inner west 66, and the south west 57.
Bexley was the most popular suburb in Sydney for auctions with nine, followed by Beecroft's eight, Randwick seven, Mosman, Paddington and Hunters Hill each with six.
The Sydney weekend auction market weakened on Saturday following its record-breaking run of the past month, APM senior economist Dr Andrew Wilson said.
"Although the 84.4% result still reflects an undeniable strong market for sellers, the result was nonetheless the lowest recorded on a non-holiday weekend for two months," he said.
This weekend’s result was well down on the previous weekend’s all-time record clearance rate of 89.2% but well ahead of the 74.9% recorded over the same weekend last year.
The top performer was the lower north with 95.2% followed by Canterbury Bankstown with 92.1%, the north west 88.9%, the inner west and the upper north shore each with 86.7%, the west 84.8%, the city and east 83.6%, the northern beaches 82.6%, the south west 79.3%, the south 76.8% and the central coast with a clearance rate of 68.8%.