Strong weekend auction results a bonanza for early spring home sellers

The strength of the early spring market has been a bonanza for sellers across most of the capital cities.

At 85 percent Sydney had its highest clearance rate since June last year, the height of the then-boom, according to Domain. Saturday’s result in Melbourne was the highest for two months.

Sydney has now recorded five weekends out of the past six with clearance rates at or above 80 percent. 

The shortage of auction listings is contributing to higher clearance rates, with Domain calculating September offerings in Sydney down by around 30 percent on the same month last year and down by 20 percent in Melbourne. 

The weekend's top auction result was when an eight bedroom, English style Strathfield mansion fetched a record $7.3 million.

Five of the 12 registered bidders bid to own the home at 2 Llandilo Avenue (above) which last sold for $1.03 million in 1988. The buyers were an upsizing local family, Strathfield Partners agent Robert Pignataro advised.

The sale eclipsed a nearby seven bedroom home which sold for $6.825 million in May.

The home on the estate’s 2665 sq m holding had been custom built with 2500 tonnes of sandstone from Darling Harbour.

The buyers were an upsizing local family.

Sydney also saw the $7.25 million sale of Taiping, a five-bedroom Sydney Harbour beachfront home at 3 Lower Wycombe Road, Neutral Bay, (below) sold by McGrath Neutral Bay for $7.25 million.

Melbourne's top sale was a six bedroom art deco 1930s Armadale home renovated in 1999 by Toorak architect Anthea Bickford.

It sold at $5,525,000 against its $4.5 million plus price guidance.

The 1500 sq m Dandenong Road holding (below), between Orrong and Kooyong Roads, was once owned by the well-connected ragtrading entrepreneur Saul Same of Gloweave fame until its $797,000 in 1999 after four decades ownership. 

It last sold at $1.94 million in 2002 to the radiologist Associate Professor Richard O’Sullivan.

There was a $5 million reserve with three bidders participating in the auction.

Eloc, the weekend property offering at 50-52 Bay Street, Brighton fetched $4,925,000 post-auction.

The Buxton agency price guidance had been $4.7 million plus for the 1874 home with extensions on its 1760 sq m block.

There were just the two bidders before it was passed in at $4,710,000 (below).

The national capital city clearance rate rose this week, from 75 percent last week to close to 78 percent. This time one year ago close to 70 percent of capital city auctions found buyers under the hammer.

There were 2,093 capital city auctions held over the week, similar to the 2,062 last week, but lower than one year ago, when the spring market had over 2,500 auctions across the combined capitals.

"This week last year represented the 7th consecutive week of capital city auction volumes being over the 2,000 mark, while over the past seven weeks, only three weeks have seen more than 2,000 auctions across the capitals," CoreLogic spokesperson Kevin Brogan noted.

This week there were 956 auctions held in Melbourne, down from 974 last week and lower than last year, when 1,127 Melbourne homes were taken under the hammer.

Preliminary results indicate that Melbourne’s clearance rate was steady at around 78 percent this week, while one year ago, 73 percent of Melbourne auctions cleared.

One of the high profile sellers was Kangaroos forward Jarrad Waite who sold his Moonee Ponds home at $1.48 million at weekend auction.

The Edwardian cottage (below) was expected to fetch $1.15 million plus but went $200,000 over reserve given four bidders battled it out for the three-bedroom home.

The Addison Street property sold through Charles Bongiovanni of Alexkarbon, North Melbourne.

Waite will be moving to a nearby larger home at Strathmore with his wife Jackie and their baby son.

Waite and his wife had refurbished their double-fronted period home since purchasing in 2008 for $764,500, but have not altered its floorplan.

It sold to an Ascot Vale family, according to the Herald Sun. One of the bidders that missed out did not go home empty-handed, though, taking home a signed Sherrin for kicking off the bidding at $1.305 million, which was $5000 above reserve.

Melbourne’s strongest performing sub-region this week was the North East, recording a clearance rate of 86 percent across 91 reported results.

Inner Melbourne was the busiest region for auctions, with 181 held and 168 reported so far, with a preliminary clearance rate of 76 per cent.

CoreLogic had Sydney notching up an 85 percent success rate, based on preliminary results.

Some 773 Sydney auctions were held this week, remaining relatively steady when compared to last week (758) and the week prior (757), however well below the number held over the corresponding week last year (1,041).

The Eastern Suburbs had the strongest preliminary result with 94 percent of homes selling.

There were 139 Brisbane homes taken to auction this week, relatively steady when compared to both last week (148) and one year ago (143). Brisbane’s clearance rate rose to 55 per cent last week, from 44 per cent the previous week, while one year ago, half of all auctions reported were sold.

Brisbane had the nation's cheapest auction result when a three bedroom house sold on Macleay Island (below) for $195,000.

The home on the Morton Bay island had last sold at $250,000 in 2006 and at $198,000 in 2003.

In Adelaide, the preliminary clearance rate was 76 percent this week, having risen from 68 percent last week. The number of homes taken to auction this week was 96, compared to 88 last week and 99 one year ago, when 71 per cent were successful.

There were 83 auctions held in Canberra this week and the preliminary clearance rate was 70 percent, up from one year ago when it was 58 percent.