Sydney auction clearance rate bounces back

THE best agents in town know how to make both the buyers and sellers of a property feel like they’ve won the lottery.

“I thought it would go for more than that,” exclaimed the ecstatic woman in her 40s — a renter from Bondi — on Saturday. “I can’t believe it.”

She and her husband had just bought a three-bedroom two-bathroom apartment with ocean views at 2/24 Gardyne St, Bronte for $1.93 million. They’d made just one $5000 bid.

The view from the kitchen window at 2/24 Gardyne St in Bronte.

But the owner, Pauline Burnett, felt like she had won $1 million, too — in fact, she almost had!

She’d paid just $820,000 five years ago.

The auction was one of 621 scheduled for Sydney on Saturday — and in a positive sign for sellers heading into spring, preliminary data from CoreLogic indicated the market bounced back strongly.

With 420 of the results in, the clearance rate was 72.38 per cent, having dipped just under 70 per cent last Saturday.

In Bronte, Ms Burnett’s smart renovation into the roof space had won over the six registered bidders, though only four managed to get in a bid.

The $130,000 renovations added the third bedroom, ensuite and living area opening out to a northeast facing a deck that captures stunning views of the ocean.

The property sold $30,000 above the $1.9 million reserve — but that’s as it should be, too, if an agent knows how to value a property correctly in a campaign.

Their comparables had been a three-bedroom, two bathroom apartment at 2/258 Bondi Rd, Bondi that sold for $1.85 million in April — though that had double parking and this one had none.

And a three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment with no parking at 4/19 Busby Pde, Bronte that sold for $1.72 million in April — though this one had a better renovation.

The agents, Phillips Pantzer Donnelley’s Alexander Phillips and agent Anthony Puntigam followed up that with the $2.65 million sales of a three-bedroom home in the same family for 50 years at 432 Bronte Rd, Bronte, which went $50,000 above reserve.

A Randwick couple paid $915,000 for this Petersham unit.

And a Randwick couple were happy, too, buying their first home in Petersham for $915,000, beating three other first-timers.

“OMG! We’re so ecstatic,” humanities high school teacher David Erwin, 37, said after clinching the two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment with balcony and garage at 6/16 Sadlier Crescent.

He and nurse Charlotte Reeve, 36, kissed at the fall of the gavel, later revealing they’d recently become engaged and had been looking for a home for four months.

“This was our first auction and it was completely nerve wrecking — not a whole lot of sleep was had last night,” Mr Reeve said.

The result was $15,000 above reserve and agent Shaun Stoker of Ray White Surry Hills said it was the highest price for a two-bedroom apartment achieved in the building.

Across the full week — taking into account midweek auctions — CoreLogic said 625 homes went under the hammer. The clearance rate was 72 per cent.

For the same week last year, there’d been 635 auctions and a clearance rate of 78.3 per cent.

 

From Wentworth Courier