It’s the have-to-sells – homeowners moving overseas, going through messy divorces, with deceased estates – who go to auction, six days before Christmas, in a cooling market.

And it’s the astute who are there to capitalise on the opportunity. Everyone else is fed up with the game of buying at auction in Sydney for the year, or nursing a hangover, doing their Christmas shopping or at the beach.

There were 320 auctions scheduled across Sydney on a sparkling summer’s day. With 224 of the results in by Saturday evening, the clearance rate of 61.4 per cent was slightly higher than the past few weeks (58.1 per cent ;57.5 per cent) suggesting vendors took what they could get. “It’s nothing like the 76 per cent we had a year ago,” the Domain senior economist, Dr Andrew Wilson, said.

The price guide for the 31-square-metre studio in a 1990s unit block with car space at 15/145-161 Abercrombie Street, Darlington was $400,000 to $450,000, with the owner citing plans to upgrade as motivating the sale.

One of the two bidders at the 10am auction in Darlington certainly thought he stood a good chance of an early Christmas present.

“I could get a bargain – there’s not many people here,” the investor, who didn’t want to be identified, said. And it was true – apart from Domain, there were just the agents, two registered bidders, a neighbour, and the vendor who was keeping a low profile.

Auctioneer Brian Cannan was in theme: “What an opportunity you have, just before Christmas,” he began.

He called for bids, with the investor offering $300,000, which was laughed off. “We’ve had offers much higher than that,” Mr Cannan said, suggesting an offer of $450,000, $430,000, or even $420,000 instead.

The investor shook his head, so Cannan turned his focus to the other registered bidder: a young woman, representing her friend, who was on the other end of the phone visiting her family in China. “Does your friend want to make an offer?” the auctioneer asked.

“She wants to see how it goes,” came the reply, which prompted the agents to swarm around her, their desperation apparent. “If you want to buy, you are going to need to bid, that’s the way an auction works,” said Cannan.

“I’ve got another buyer on the phone here,” volunteered one of agents. Even a vendor bid of $420,000 failed to extract a bid, as the woman talked in Mandarin to her friend on the phone.

The woman ended up handing her phone to one of the agents, who disappeared out of view. Negotiations over, the agent emerged looking like the cat who got the cream.

The offer was $427,500. Done deal. The buyer, a researcher from Sydney University, would be returning from her holiday in China to live in it. It wasn’t her first property.

In Beaconsfield, a deceased estate – a one-bedroom “ugly duckling” house at 3 Collins Street – sold for $723,000.

The reserve had been $650,000 and the $600,000 price guide for a inner-city house attracted 14 registered bidders.

“I was a little worried about the timing of the auction,” admitted Ray White agent Zoli Pataki. “But it turned out to be a huge success.” The buyers were a couple who planned to renovate and move in.At another auction, of a two-bedroom 1940s semi at 26a Yule Street in Dulwich Hill, the seller was moving overseas and it was a property in a good location oozing opportunity. A lot of families wanted it.

There were plenty of prams, toddlers and expectant mothers in the crowd of 60 and it sold for $1,135,000 under the hammer, beating its reserve price of $1,050,000 by $85,000.

Sales agent David Diamantopoulos of LJ Hooker Marrickville said having nine registered bidders was twice as many as he expected.

“Auctioning on the last weekend of the property year is a gamble,” he said.