Auctions rebound
Domain reported a preliminary auction clearance rate of 76.9 per cent for Sydney on Saturday, recording 512 sales.
The median auction price was back up to its highest level in six weeks at $1,300,000, and was quite considerably higher than the corresponding weekend last year.
The median auction price reported for houses increased from $1,407,500 last year to $1,511,000, while the median price of units sold under the hammer increased modestly to $875,000 from $850,000 last year.
CoreLogic reported a clearance rate for the week of 80.7 per cent in Sydney from well over 1,000 auctions, which was its highest reported result for Sydney since April 9.
The top sale of the weekend was seen in Northbridge, where a grand 5-bedroom waterfront home on 1,891 square metres with panoramic Sydney harbour views and water access fetched $9.3 million.
A strong result, no doubt, but not a patch on the street record set in September last year.
Respective auction clearance rates were also very strong in Melbourne.
More lenders are set to report higher mortgage rates this week for interest-only loans.
Despite the unambiguously strong auction results, slowly but surely regulatory and Budget measures respectively are set to strangle city-wide growth in these two markets, as I looked at in a little more detail here and here.
