From $280,000 to $6.8m - no grief for vendors as Sydney's streetside auction opera hits record Super Saturday note

It is the sellers' market to end all sellers' markets, said APM's Dr Andrew Wilson as an 83.7% auction clearance rate was secured on Sydney's busiest auction day ever.

Opera singers Patrick Togher and Romola Tyrrell were celebrating the high note having sold their Newtown Victorian-era terrace for $1.65 million at auction this weekend.

It was initially listed with $1.4 million plus hopes but this expectation was revised upwards after early buyer feed back to the Raine & Horne selling agent Michael Harris to $1.5 million plus.

The tenor and soprano have lived at the four bedroom, three bathroom Yaralla Street terrace since they paid $395,000 in 1993, reflecting 7.3% annual growth.

Three of the seven registered bidders put in auction bids, selling to buyers who had been in the market for most of spring.

At Rozelle, the day's first auction resulted in a $1.455 million sale to buyers who were fresh to the market. The charming renovated late 1800s cottage - with pressed metal ceilings and walls, polished Kauri floors and original fireplaces - had been listed with published $1.2 million plus hopes for its 9am auction.

Beating off two other registered bidders, the Rozelle buyers paid $100,000 over reserve, and escaped the so-called newest tabloid media phenomenon afflicting would-be buyers , of  ''GOMO'' Grief Over Missing Out."

The Rozelle offering kicked off the record 784 properties scheduled for auction on Sydney's Super Saturday - which sits amid three consecutive 700 plus auction weekends. The record day follows last weekend's 747 listings and precedes next weekend's 759 auction offerings.

The 2013 spring market was your one-in-a-hundred-year auction market, said Dr Andrew Wilson, the senior economist at Australian Property Monitors who expects prices to peak this quarter and level out in the 2014 first quarter.

Before this spring there had been just three days with more than 700 auctions in Sydney, the last being in March 2012.

It was Sydney's turn for the record books. But with 1317 auctions reported to the REIV, and some $1.2 billion worth of property sold, Melbourne had its record Super Saturday only last month, and this weekend Melbourne agents secured a clearance rate of 71% from the 876 auctions reported to the REIV. Next weekend the REIV expects around 1280 auctions.

Sydney's infectious inner west auction engine room was the most popular suburban region for auctions this weekend with 135 scheduled, followed by the upper north shore with 126, the south with 94, the city and east with 67, the west with 64 and the lower north with 53.

APM had Epping as the day's busiest auction suburb with 10 homes. The next most popular were Maroubra and Burwood, each with nine auctions, followed by Merrylands, West Ryde, Willoughby and Oatley, each with eight auctions.

Even though the 2013 spring listing numbers have surged to record levels, pent-up buyer demand has prompted 16 out of the past 18 weekends clocking up auction clearance rates above 80%. This weekend it was 83.7%, based on the initial APM tally, although Property Observer notes last weekend's late notified results took the revised tally to 77%. There are some 300 results yet to be included in this weekend's Sydney tally. 

It is a sellers' market to end all sellers' markets, Dr Wilson has suggested.

However the former Wallaby Peter Jorgensen and his wife, Jo, withdrew their Victorian terrace in Balmain from today's schedule.

Jorgensen, who switched to rugby league in 1995 to play for the Roosters and later the Panthers, bought the Elliott Street property in 1999 for $610,000.

There was a major renovation by Jo in 2009 which opened up the reare of the house along with a pool.

Jorgensen, an investment adviser at Evans and Partners, had hoped the four-bedroom home would fetched $1.75 million plus.

A nearby Leppington bushfire held up the auction of 5 Francis Street at Bringelly. Its a four bedroom house on five acres with 100 dog accomodation which was listed with $850,000 plus hopes.

After a short delay, it was sold by auctionservices.net.au auctioneer Rocky Bartolotto for $950,000.

The weekend's highest sale was $6.89 million through McGrath estate agents Hamish Robertson and Nigel Mukhi of a Lavender Bay apartment. The Maritima apartment at 4/8 King George Street had 616 square metres space including 290 square metre harbourfront terracing. It had four double bedrooms plus a private marina berth to accomodate a 40 foot vessel.

It last traded at $6 million in 2005, reflecting 1.6% annual growth, but did break through the block's previous record price which stood at $6.55 million for the sale of units three and unit seven. The weekend sale offering had first sold at $1.9 million in 1993, reflecting  6.6% annual growth.

The cheapest weekend sale was $280,000 in Kingsford for a one bedder apartment. It last sold at $100,000 in 1992, reflecting 4.8% annual growth.

The Forsyth Street block's last sale was $350,000 for an apartment previously sold at $111,000 in 1994 and at $87,000 in 1990, reflecting 6.2% annual growth in both instances.