The selling agents, Sotheby's International Realty's Rowan Lazar and Phil Orr, said while the result was good there was no doubt that the buyer demand had softened.

"Last year I was taking every property to auction, now every property we sell we are selling before auction," Mr Lazar said.

"It's definitely softening. There is still good selling for vendors but many have to realise more so than before it's coming down to one or two buyers so many properties are being sold prior to auction."

He said vendors probably need to lower their expectations.

James Pratt Auctions chief executive James Pratt, who reported the sale of a four-bedroom house at Wollstonecraft for $5.68 million or $580,000 above reserve, also talked of considerable easing in the market.

"I've started to find across Sydney auctions are getting less buyer motivation on auction day than earlier this year as well sold prior have become increasingly effective for agents as they recognise more volume is coming onto the market over the next two weeks."

Domain chief economist Andrew Wilson said this spring selling season was shaping up to be one of the slowest.


"I don't think there is any doubt we are entering the slowest spring in five years," Dr Wilson said. "It is becoming a much more level playing field between buyers and sellers."

To add further pressure on vendors Sydney is about to be hit with the largest number of auction listings this coming weekend with more than 750 residential properties lined up - or about 250 more homes than the same time last year.

Listings are a key metric in determining the strength of a market.

The latest figures from SQM Research show the number of properties for sale in Sydney are now 12.4 per cent above where they were a a year ago.

In Melbourne, the auction clearance rate slipped to 73.1 per cent on the weekend down from 74.8 per cent last weekend and 78.4 per cent in the same week last year.

The most expensive property to sell was a five-bedroom house at 136 Page Street, Middle Park for $6.4 million sold through Marshall White Port Phillip.

Corelogic figures indicated that for Melbourne the strongest rate of clearance was recorded across the North West region, where 86.6 per cent of the 82 reported auctions were successful.

The Melbourne market also has 1050 auctions already listed for the coming weekend - the highest in three months according to Domain and another signal that more people are deciding to sellout.

Elsewhere, Corelogic reported a preliminary auction clearance rate in Brisbane of 43.9 per cent, down from 45.6 per cent last week. Auction volumes were similar this week with 137 auctions held.

Perth's clearance rate of 36.8 per cent across 19 auction results was lower than last week, when 26 auctions were held and a clearance rate of 62.5 per cent achieved.