Sydney up 16 per cent on last January's listings

The NSW 2016 auction season kicks off with plenty of unsold property left over from last year's unsold private treaty and auction stock.

Sydney currently has over 17,000 properties for sale - around 16 per cent up on the same time last year, according to CoreLogic RP Data.

The year ended on a 53 percent December clearance rate, with some late 2015 auction vendors six weeks on still to secure offers close enough to their desired asking price.

However new vendors are yet to swamp the market as just 3,300 fresh listings have been posted over the past four weeks. That's down around six percent.

There have been just a few dozen early bird January auction listings, with clearance rates bouncing back a bit.

There were 19 for auction on Saturday January 10, then last Saturday, January 17 there were 12 on offer across the state with agents selling 63 per cent including an $1.22 million two bedroom unit in Clovelly.

Last weekend the numbers bumped up to 82.

Last year around 30 per cent of all properties sold via auction.

But Sydney's overall clearance rates plummeted towards the end of last year from the 82 per cent March record.