The Sydney and Melbourne property markets picked up on the first significant weekend of the year from where they left off at Christmas, with cheap money pushing strong competition for the few available properties.
The national clearance rate dipped to a preliminary 70.8 per cent in the week to Saturday from 71.6 per cent a week earlier as the number of scheduled auctions more than doubled to 867 from 368, CoreLogic figures showed on Sunday.
But with the figure still below the 916 auctions of the equivalent weekend last year (which returned a 70.1 per cent clearance rate), stock levels are still rising more slowly than many people hope, and intensifying competition.
The vendors of a two-bedroom apartment in Sydney's northern districts suburb of Gladesville brought forward the auction of their unit - scheduled for next weekend - and it was snapped up by investors from Castle Hill in the city's north-west for $722,000, $22,000 above reserve.
"With limited apartments available in Gladesville, there is currently strong competition amongst investors, first home buyers and mums and dads buying for their children," said Michael Gallina of Belle Property Hunters Hill. "Competition between investors was fierce."
In Bondi Beach, former Channel Nine boss David Gyngell and his TV presenter wife Leila McKinnon outbid five potential other bidders to pay $1,675,000 for a three-bedroom art deco apartment.
Persistently low levels of listings are are now forcing agents to cut commissions to win business and the start of the new year suggests little relief.
"I think it's going to stay like this at least for the first quarter of this year," Mr Gallina said. "We've got buyers from last year and we've got fresh buyers from this year who are ready to buy."
Sydney's preliminary clearance rate of 78.1 per cent - up from 76.6 per cent last week - was based on the results of 192 auctions reported. Melbourne's preliminary rate of 77.5 per cent, was based on 187 auctions. While both cities more than doubled the number of auctions they had last weekend, they were still below last year.
It wasn't a foregone conclusion that stock levels would undershoot, CoreLogic spokesman Kevin Brogan said.
"Looking at the way this has gone in previous years, in Sydney for example, it took until the third week of February to hit around the 800 auction mark," Mr Brogan said. "We're in the mid-200s this week, as opposed to 313 for Sydney last year. It is a little slower, but it's a bit early to say that's a hugely significant trend."
In Melbourne's northern suburb of Thornbury, a crumbling five-bedroom weatherboard family house sold for $1,645,000, nearly $400,000 above its $1.26 million reserve price.
Adelaide's preliminary clearance rate ticked up to 64.3 per cent based on the results of 84 auctions reported. Last week the city had a 62.1 per cent rate.
Brisbane posted a preliminary clearance rate of 58.2 per cent, based on the results of 67 auctions reported. Last week the Queensland capital had a 63 per cent clearance. Gold Coast posted a 47.9 per cent based on the 48 results reported so far.
Canberra had a 75.4 per cent preliminary rate, based on 57 results - out of a scheduled 69 - up on last week's 72.7 per cent.
