National apartment auction clearance rate rises to 71 percent

The long weekend national auction clearance rate saw 71 percent of the 344 apartments find buyers with Sydney being the strongest market. There was a 76 percent success rate for the 229 Sydney apartment vendors. The Sydney median apartment sale was $970,000, according to CoreLogic. There was a 60 percent clearance rate for the 90 Melbourne vendors, with over a quarter selling pre-auction. There was a $643,000 median apartment price paid in Melbourne. The national apartment median price for weekend sales was $900,000, compared with $1.23 million for houses, which saw a 79 percent success rate. Listings were well down in most capitals given the long weekend. On the prior weekend CoreLogic calculated there was a lower 63 percent national success rate from 625 apartment and townhouse auction offerings. A two storey KEW townhouse was the highest reported result when 65A Charles Street, KEW fetched $2.25 million. It was a four bedroom, three bathroom townhouse on 346 sqm which was designed as a duplex in 2015 by Thomas Anderson Design. Kay & Burton pushed the auction date back twice due to the COVID-19 lockdown. It had previously sold at $1.75 million in 2015. The next highest reported apartment sale was $1.67 million in Sydney's Manly. It was a two bedroom one bathroom offering at 7/91 West Esplanade, in the Tara complex. The nation’s cheapest sale was auction eve when 7/119 Northumberland Rd, Pascoe Vale fetched $345,000. Set on the first floor of the 1968 complex, the north facing one bedroom apartment had sold for $300,000 in 2011. The 60 sqm apartment was sold by William Spyroe at Eview Group C+M Residential to a downsizer.