“We moved the auction up purely because I think the fire in their stomachs is probably stronger than it was a week ago,” McPherson said.
He said while the latest rate hike this week may have hit buyers’ budgets, the rarity of the Coogee site for sale was the main driver behind the “shooting” at the auction by two active bidders.
“What worries them more than that is that this will never happen.”
Sydney’s clearance rate hit an 18-month high of 67.9 per cent in April, the best-performing capital city, according to Domain Group, suggesting the housing downturn may be over.
Auction clearance rates of around 60% reflect stable house prices, while 70% or higher indicate steady price increases.
On Tuesday, the Reserve Bank raised the cash rate by 0.25 percentage points to 3.85%, the eleventh hike in the past 12 months and the highest rate in more than a decade.it Will push up mortgage rates and slash homebuyers’ budgets.
The recent rate hike didn’t seem to unnerve buyers on Saturday.
NSW Government for sale Eight clearings at Grantham Farm, formerly part of Riverstone, 36 kilometers north-west of the Sydney CBD. They sold to small builders for a combined $5,201,000.
Lot 122 on the corner of Sydney Street and Junction Road sold for $794,000. The reserve fund is US$770,000. The cheapest lot sold at Lot 123 for $591,000, above the reserve price of $575,000.
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Cooleys auctioneer Michael Garofolo, who called the auction, said there were 30 registered buyers, all of whom were builders.
“I did something like that 12 months ago and it was a complete failure. There was no confidence in these building buyers,” Garofolo said.
Some sense of “activity” in the market, the end of the rate hike cycle and falling construction costs are encouraging builders to return to the market, he said.
“Eventually market conditions have improved and builders have been on the sidelines for too long.
“They’re more confident in what they’re buying and what they can build and ultimately the profit margin,” he said. “I think both parties are getting fair value.”
These blocks are sold through Tony Hourigan of Abode Agents.
Meanwhile, in East Killara, a five-bedroom house in 15 Dongmen Avenue Sold for a new street record of $4.41 million.
Nine buyers — mostly upsizers from the North Shore — registered to bid on the property, which has a price guide of $3.5 million to $3.85 million.
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The auction got off to a slow start, with an opening bid of $3.5 million. Once the reserve price of $3.85 million was hit, buyers started pouring in, said Jessica Cao of Ray White Upper North Shore.
It eventually sold for $4.41 million to a young family upsizing from Epping.
Cao said buyers on the upper north shore, who basically had “good incomes”, were not worried about this week’s rate hike because many had been looking for homes for months, waiting for the market to bottom out.
“People with low bids have been looking since last year. They’ve been looking for a while but missed a few auctions,” she said.
There is still a huge imbalance between the number of homes on the market and the number of active buyers right now, Cao said.
Records show the home last traded for $565,000 in 1999.
