No winter blues for Sydney auction sellers
This weekend will likely be the trough of this year’s Sydney auction market although typically lower mid-winter listings are being offset by continuing solid buyer demand.
Just under 500 homes are set to go under the hammer this Saturday in Sydney which will be similar to last weekend’s 499 auctions but significantly higher again than the winter low of 354 auctioned over the same weekend last year.
Sydney’s city and east region will lead auction activity this weekend with 60 homes scheduled to go under the hammer. Next highest is the inner west with 57 followed by the south 54, the upper north shore 51, the west 47, the lower north 44, Canterbury Bankstown 39, the south west 37, the northern beaches 33, the north west 28, the central coast 18 and the Blue Mountains with a single auction listed on Saturday.
Blacktown is the most popular suburb in Sydney for auctions on Saturday with 8 followed by Liverpool 7 and a number of suburbs with 6 auctions scheduled including Mosman, Cronulla, Wahroonga, Randwick and Rockdale.
The Sydney home auction market continues to record its best results since autumn with solid buyer and seller activity offsetting the usual mid-year slowdown.
Sydney reported another robust winter clearance rate of 71.5 per cent last Saturday which was the same as the previous weekends result but lower than the 75.5 per cent reported over the same weekend last year.
Last Saturdays result remains the highest reported for six weeks with the local market recording the first consecutive weekends with rates above 70 per cent since June 3.
Recent predictions of a winter freeze in the Sydney market remain well off the mark with speculation rising that significant changes to the stamp duty payable to first home buyers effective from July 1 may be supporting current activity.
Similar to the previous weekend, Sydney’s regions reported consistent results with clearance rates for most areas above 70 percent. Sydney’s west again recorded one of its best results this year indicating perhaps rising first home buyer activity in the budget market. Inner suburban areas continue to produce strong winter results for sellers although the inner west was unusually lower at the weekend.
The latest NSW residential investor lending data from the ABS reported strong growth over the month of May with the values of loans approved increasing by 30.8 per cent to $7.1bn. The NSW May total was the highest ever recorded for that month and the third highest monthly total on record. $22.6bn in residential lending has now been approved over the first five months of this year in NSW which is 24.3 per cent higher than that recorded over the same period last year.
The NSW full year to date growth comparisons continue to rise, up by 15.8 percent to the year ending May compared to the previous year. Investor lending in NSW now accounts for 50.5 per cent of all lending to investors nationally
Reflecting concerns over perceived housing risks from a notional spectre of sharply rising interest rates, APRA the financial regulator has instigated policies designed to tighten bank mortgage lending to residential investors. The latest ABS data indicates that despite lending restrictions, investor activity remains unquestionably strong in NSW which will be a relief for tenants particularly in Sydney where vacancies are scarce and already high rents are rising.
