Inevitable 2015 Sydney slowdown after remarkable record 2014: John McGrath

The McGrath Estate Agents network has had a record November on the back of rising volumes and prices.

"November 2014 has gone down in our 25-year company history as our biggest sales month on record with $1.27 billion worth of real estate sold across our 62-office network," its chief John McGrath has blogged.

"November was an incredible month for many markets but particularly Sydney," he said. 

But noting the weight of "skyrocketing" volumes, McGrath says the weakening clearance rate to around 70% was still a remarkable level of clearance with more than 1,000 properties going to auction on some recent Saturdays. 

"Forget the bubble talk," McGrath said.

"Forget the doomsayers.

"What’s going on here is a glowing testament to real estate being one of the safest and most effective forms of wealth creation around.

"Look what’s happened to property prices in the past two years – they’re up more than 25%, according to RP Data.

"That’s really amazing stuff, although we do want this to slow down a bit, as a period of consolidation is vital after a significant burst of growth."

His market predictions for 2015: "things are inevitably going to slow down next year, especially in Sydney, which has experienced such phenomenal growth in 2013 and 2014." 

McGrath is not sure whether the traditionally strong autumn season in 2015 will occur before a cooling in conditions over winter, or whether 2015 will "start on the back foot a bit", given the huge volume of sales going on right now.

"Time will tell," he told his Switzer blog readers.