It was a gloomy spring day for many property sellers across Sydney, with many properties passing in – often with no bids from prospective buyers.

Yet of the 569 results reported to Domain from the 940 auctions scheduled for Saturday, the clearance rate was 62.6 per cent – a slight improvement on last week’s 59.2 per cent.

Domain Group senior economist Dr Andrew Wilson said while it was a better result for Sydney sellers, the next few weekends “will tell the story of whether the market has bottomed out or not”.

There are still 5000 auctions to come before Christmas.

A two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment at B502/24 Point Street, Pyrmont, with views of the city and the Harbour Bridge, passed in on a vendor bid of $1.45 million.

Auctioneer Scott Gibbons, who markets himself as “Mr Sold”, had called for one of the two registered bidders to “lay their cards on the table” for the “phenomenal opportunity” but no one raised their bidder’s card.

Unfazed, he assured the small gathering: “You will see this one sold very quickly.”

The agent, Ian McDonald of Kho & Lee, said “one of the buyers got stuck in traffic” and pointed to a $1.4 million sale for a similar apartment in the block with no view earlier in the year.

In inner-city Redfern, auctioneer Damien Cooley​ was just as unsuccessful at the auction of a two-bedroom apartment at 39/146-152 Pitt Street.

“All you need to own this is make a good offer … a fair offer,” he said.

But even a vendor bid of $785,000 failed to encourage anyone to show interest – which is hardly surprising since, as Belle Property Surry Hills agent Leon Parker admitted later, no one had actually registered to bid.

Why did they proceed with the auction?

“Well, we paid for it,” he said. “And we really wanted the vendor to see that he has to lower his expectations.”

The reserve had been $850,000. An apartment higher up had sold for $800,000 earlier in the year but things have changed since then. “It’s a little bit scary, with the market doing what it’s doing,” Parker said.

All eyes had been on Saturday’s clearance rate as the Sydney auction market continued to buckle under the weight of higher than usual spring listings and, more recently, higher interest rates.

But buyers advocate and auctioneer Robert Klaric said the market had corrected, not crashed.

“It has come off an artificial high and the clearance rates are being taken as a whole for Sydney, which is skewed,” he said, pointing out that clearances were higher in inner areas.

The northern beaches, too, has been faring relatively well but despite 14 contracts having been issued for a two-bedroom apartment at 1/61 Griffith Street in Fairlight, it passed in on a vendor bid of $1.3 million on Saturday. The reserve had been $1.4 million.

Three parties registered and two raised their cards in a drawn-out process that started at $1.27 million and culminated in the vendor bid.

“Normally for something at this price point, we would have offers prior to auction but buyers are nervous. They are waiting to see what it comes to on the day,” selling agent Georgi Bates of Cunninghams said.

Many agents were apparently too busy negotiating to report their results but auctioneer Stuart Benson told of some rare happy sellers in the north-west, where clearance rates recently have been as low as 27 per cent.

A four-bedroom home at 3 Scarborough Close, Pennant Hills, on a 1182 square metre block, sold for $1,655,000 – $155,000 above its reserve. There were five registrations to bid.

“Today’s result was expected,” Benson said. “We had a realistic reserve, which meant our bidders were all in with a chance.”

On the lower north shore at Balmoral, an unrenovated apartment above a shop and opposite the beach initially passed in but then sold for $20,000 over the reserve.

Brendan Warner of Raine & Horne Mosman said the two-bedroom unit at 6/7 The Esplanade passed in after one of his two bidders missed the auction.

When the investor did arrive, they held a “mini” auction which resulted in a sale at $1.1 million. After renovation, it should rent for between $750 and $800 a week.

And there were some strong inner-city results, such as the two-bedroom warehouse conversion at 35/82 Myrtle Street, Chippendale that sold for $1,236,000 – $136,000 over reserve – to an owner upgrading within the block who beat four other bidders.

Ercan Ersan from Ray White Erskineville said the 80 square metre apartment had last sold for $805,000 two years ago. There had been no renovation.