Sydney auctioneer Damian Cooley, whose Cooley Auctions achieved a 69 per cent clearance rate over the weekend from 42 properties, said there were more buyers in the market now compared with November and December but the average number of bidders per property – three – was still lower than the same time last year.

"There's lots of people looking but this has not translated into large numbers of registered bidders," Mr Cooley told The Australian Financial Review.

"We're still getting some strong results like 17 Byrne Avenue in South Coogee, which sold for $4.36 million, but its now more of a normal market in Sydney with good opportunities for both buyers and sellers," he said.

Over the weekend, the six-bedroom Hunters Hill home of best-selling cookbook author Martyna Angell and her husband Matthew sold under the hammer for $3.685 million through Belle Property's Simon Harrison and George Gialouris.

Subdued conditions

The renovated, architect-designed home at 34 Park Road sold just above the on-market call of $3.65 million, highlighting the more subdued conditions. It last sold for $2.22 million five years ago.

Mr Harrison said 136 groups had inspected the property over the course of the marketing campaign.

Melbourne, where auction activity ramped up noticeably to 923 properties from 619 last week, will likely record a slightly lower final auction figure then the 70.2 per cent achieved last week, with CoreLogic recording a 70.7 per cent preliminary figure over the weekend.


Its daily index shows Melbourne dwelling prices down 0.17 per cent for the quarter (to February 17) compared with a 0.1 per cent quarterly gain recorded to the end of January.

"This will be the first week in some time where Sydney has out-performed Melbourne," commented CoreLogic.

In desirable Ascot Vale, an inner northern Melbourne suburb, a meticulously renovated three-bedroom home at 12 Mirams Street was passed in on a vendor bid of $1.55 million, the second time in the space of two months it has failed to sell at auction. It is understood the vendors wanted as much as $1.8 million.

One attendee described it as a "great dud auction".

"It shows that over-capitalised houses that don't tick all the boxes in terms of location, distance to the train station are not getting great results," they said.

In the smaller auction markets, Adelaide recording a preliminary auction clearance rate of 67.3 per cent, Brisbane managed 48.9 per cent and Canberra 62.9 per cent.