"Given the significant proportion of investors still active in the Sydney market, that's going to have an impact, making it a soft landing … there are some signs of resilience."

In Sydney's Birchgrove, former Prudential and BankSA managing director Terence Jay and his wife, Karen - a former chief marketing manager at Advance Bank in Canberra - sold the five-bedroom, four-level home, they built in 2002 under the hammer for $5,311,000, over the $5 million reserve price.

The house at 29 Louisa Road, with views of the harbour, Harbour Bridge and Birchgrove Park - and an 1100-bottle cellar - was sold by Belle Property Balmain's Lynsey Kemp and Kristyn Brennan.

In Melbourne, a three-bedroom house at 66 Clendon Road in Toorak sold on Friday by private treaty, after an expressions of interest campaign, for $7,850,000 - which industry sources said was a record price for the suburb of more than $11,600 per square metre - well above the $6.85 million to $7.5 million asking price. Kay & Burton's Mike Gibson, who managed the sale, declined to comment.

Auction results for week to Saturday 24 March, 2018. Michael Bleby

"In the last four weeks, there's been a real change," said top-end Melbourne buyers' agent David Morrell. "It really has hit the go button. It's surprised everybody."

Auction clearances varied by suburb and market niche, however. The Sydney regions of Ryde, the Central Coast and outer south west were the weakest, with auction clearance rates of 57.1 per cent. Melbourne's inner eastern suburbs fell flat with a 56.4 per cent readout and the city's southeastern suburbs limped along at 61.3 per cent.

Sydney prices fell 0.6 per cent and Melbourne and Brisbane prices fell 0.1 per cent last month - their second month of decline - and the rebalancing is continuing.


CoreLogic's hedonic home value index for the first 25 days of March shows a 0.3 per cent decline in dwelling values in both Sydney and Melbourne. Adelaide values are down 0.2 per cent, while Brisbane and Perth are both 0.2 per cent higher.

The five-bedroom, four-level home at 29 Louisa Road in Sydney's Birchgrove sold under the hammer for $5,311,000.

The pre-Easter week is always big for auctions as vendors try to wrap up campaigns ahead of the long weekend that typically marks the start of school holidays. The week to Saturday marked the biggest-ever number of auctions ever tracked by data provider CoreLogic. The 3967 scheduled auctions topped the previous record of 3908 held in the last week of November 2014 and was well ahead of the equivalent week last year, when the total was 3517 auctions.

In Melbourne, where the 2078 scheduled auctions marked the city's biggest week on record, the preliminary clearance rate was 67 per cent, based on the results of 1700 auctions reported.

In Sydney, where the 1359 scheduled auctions were less than the 1436 auctions of the pre-Easter week last year, the initial read out was a 66.2 per cent clearance rate based on the 1037 reported results.

Canberra had the highest preliminary auction clearance rate at 73.8 per cent, based on the results of 107 of the 129 scheduled auctions for the week. A four-bedroom house at 16 Hampton Circuit in Yarralumla sold for $2,550,000 on Saturday.

The 29 Louisa Road house has views across Birchgrove Park to Sydney harbour. Supplied

Brisbane reported a 49.2 per cent preliminary clearance rate in a week with 194 scheduled auctions, down from the preliminary figure a week earlier of 55.8 per cent - and a final figure of 51.9 per cent.


A four-bedroom house at 33 Bowler Street in the Queensland capital's inner-western suburb of Paddington sold at auction for $2,220,000 on Saturday.

Adelaide's 67.3 per cent, in a week with 143 scheduled auctions, was below the previous week's preliminary 69.7 per cent figure and final reading of 64.3 per cent.

One of that city's most expensive auction sales was the three-bedroom house at 105 George Street in Norwood, which sold for $1,620,000.

The sale of 66 Clendon Road in Melbourne's Toorak for $7,850,000 set a new benchmark for the upmarket suburb. Michael Bleby