Market Update August 17

The Sydney auction clearance rate for last week was 40.7% - down 1.3% from last week, according to today’s statistics compiled by SQM research, contrasted against the auction clearance rates for Sydney published by other entities over the weekend, up to 66%. Across the 2037, 2038, 2040, 2050, 2048, 2049 postcodes the clearance rate was a 54.5%, showing signs of strength in our local area. You may be wondering why there’s such a discrepancy between Saturday’s “preliminary” results and the actual results published by SQM research. The explanation is simple, many agents choose not to report their failed auctions, yet rapidly report their successes. At Pilcher Residential, we have and will always report our auction results, as transparency is part of our ethos. On that note, the last time we had a passed-in onsite auction for a house was March 2019.

The Sydney auction clearance rate has been around the same level for 15 weeks, averaging 40.68%, with a high of 42.6% and a low of 38.4%. Historically there haven’t been many instances where auction clearance rates sat much lower than this, most recently in 2011/212 as much of the world was emerging from post GFC recession.

Despite the slightly gloomy market conditions there’s been a few brilliant rays of sunshine coming though for our vendors with some benchmark sales last week. Our $3.7m sale of 40 Allen St in Glebe set a suburb record price for a 2-bedroom home and the $1.54m sale of 175A Young St Annandale set a suburb record price for a 1-bedroom home on a single block.

Our featured property this week (above) is the grand terrace at 205 Annandale St, Annandale, a rare offering on 536 sqm (approx.) with DA approval for extensive renovations. This remarkable home on Annandale’s signature street is on the market for only the second time in 42 years.