$16 million Mosman sale leads weekend results

A likely $16 million private treaty trophy home sale in Mosman headlined the nation's weekend property sales.

It was the redundant Federation Queen Anne style home of the London-based infrastructure investment adviser, Peter Hofbauer.

The six-bedroom 1910 Bradleys Head Road trophy home (above) on 2244 sqm was listed only late last month.

Offers were not due for another 20 days when it was snapped up Friday night.

It came with an asking price of between $15.5 million and $16.5 million through McGrath agents Michael Rava and Michael Coombs. 

It set a non-waterfront record for the suburb when it last sold at $7.15 million in 2001, but not this time.

At around $16 million is does rank as the third highest sale result across the lower north shore this year.

The Melbourne-born Hofbauer, who was previously Babcock & Brown's head of infrastructure, moved back to London in 2007 where he now oversees infrastructure investments at Hermes, which is owned by BT Pension Scheme in London.

The top auction sales reported in Melbourne and Sydney were also both secured early in their pre-auction marketing.

A Cronulla beachfront (below) sold well ahead of its scheduled weekend auction at $5.25 million on October 25.

The five bedroom, five bathroom bayside home sits on a near level 1340 sqm block with 24 metre width on the water.

It last sold at $4.3 million in 2011.

The Seaholme sale on the bay near Melbourne's Altona at $2.888 million was secured October 20.

The Jon Fredrick and Clayton Brown architecturally designed four bedroom home with study had a prominent street facade since built around 10 years ago.

The 13 Esplanade, Seaholme home (above) had been initially listed in May with $2.9 million hopes. 

Auction activity has continue to rise through into the final month of spring, however the number of auctions remained well below the highs recorded a year ago.

The preliminary national clearance rate was 77.5% across 2,490 reported auction results, according to CoreLogic.

This was higher than last week’s final clearance rate of 74.4 percent, with auction volumes increasing compared to the 2,253 capital city auctions reported last week.

Over the corresponding week last year, auctions volumes were significantly higher with 2,947 auctions reported and a 61 percent clearance rate.

The jump in success rate over the past week was especially evident in Melbourne which reported an 80.5 per cent clearance rate, up from the previous week's 77.5 percent.

There was a bigger jump in the Canberra clearance rate. Across Canberra a total of 113 auctions were held this week, compared to 93 last week and 122 at the same time last year. Canberra’s preliminary clearance rate of 79.5 percent was up on the 70 percent in the previous week. 

Sydney's 82.1 percent was the fourth week-on-week reporting above 80 percent, up from 80 percent, although the total 1,063 auctions scheduled fell just below last week's 1,100. 

The Domain chief economist Dr Andrew Wilson suggests the Sydney market was beginning to ease 'reflecting more choice for buyers'.

'With more robust listing numbers also set for coming weekends' said Domain chief economist Dr Andrew Wilson.

Sydney’s preliminary auction clearance rate was up slightly on the prior week's 80.5 percent, while one year ago it was a significantly lower clearance rate of 58 percent.

The Northern Beaches sub-region of Sydney has shown the strongest performance with 92 percent of the 111 reported as sold over the past week.

It included the Thursday twlight auction when the North Curl Curl home of model Jennifer Hawkins and builder, husband Jake Wall sold.

They secured a $5,235,000 sale of the Koichi Takada-designed five bedroom, three bathroom home that had been listed with $4.8 million expectations.