Governor-General Peter Cosgrove leads Sydney weekend auctions
Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove and his wife, Lady Cosgrove, headline the weekend auction offerings with their Neutral Bay home listed following the couple's recent move to their official, vice-regal residences, nearby Admiralty House in Kirribilli and Government House in Canberra.
McGrath Estate Agents expect $2.1 million plus for the three-storey Spruson Street semi.
They paid $1.95 million in 2007, two years after Sir Peter ended his term as the Defence Force chief.
"To be asked to sell the Governor-General's home, in this industry there's no greater honour," said the listing agent Piers van Hamberg, of McGrath Estate Agents.
Australian Property Monitors says Sydney will host 882 homes this weekend.
It is down on last weekend’s 943 but higher than the 767 conducted over the same weekend a year ago.
"Sydney is set to clearly smash the all-time monthly record for auctions this November with over 5,000 properties listed," Australian Property Monitors' senior economist Andrew Wilson said.
Sydney weekend auction market dropped last Saturday recording the lowest clearance rate since the first weekend of July. The initial 75.5% result was well down on the previous weekend’s strong 82.4% rate and also below the 83.7% recorded over the same weekend last year.
"High auctions numbers over the past month however may be impacting the local market with three out of the last five weekends below the 80% weekend benchmark," Wilson said.
The four-weekend average clearance rate now stands at 79.5%, compared to 82% over the previous four-weekend period. This is the first time this spring the Sydney four-weekend average has dipped below 80%.
Sydney’s west was the leading suburban region last weekend with a strong 85.7% clearance rate. The south was next best with 82.3% with all other regions below 80% led by the inner west with 79.8% and Canterbury Bankstown and the northern beaches each with 75.7%. The city and east reported the lowest regional clearance rate at the weekend with 69.8%.
The inner west will again host the most number of auctions this weekend with 139 followed by the upper north shore with 115, the south 114, the lower north 106, the city and east 100, the west 73, the northern beaches 54 and Canterbury-Bankstown with 53 auctions scheduled.
The most popular suburb for auctions this weekend in Sydney is again Mosman on the lower north shore with 18 auctions listed. Next highest is Castle Hill in the north west with 14 followed by St Ives on the upper north shore with 12, Leichhardt in the inner west with 10, Paddington in the city and east with nine and a number of suburbs with 8 auctions including Cremorne on the lower north shore, Dulwich Hill in the inner west, Hunters Hill on the lower north shore, Manly on the northern beaches and Killara on the upper north shore