Sydney leads house price upswing

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CoreLogic’s preliminary auction results reported a clearance rate of 71.4% for Sydney. This was the sixth consecutive week that the preliminary clearance rate was above 70%.

The following chart shows the strong rebound in final Sydney clearance rates since the beginning of the year.

Sydney final auction clearance rates

Sydney’s final auction clearance rate has rebounded from an average of 57% in December to 64% in March.

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The rebound in the auction market has been reflected in CoreLogic’s daily dwelling values index.

Sydney has led the nation’s price rebound, recording growth of 0.5% over the past 28 days, the strongest growth of the major capital city markets.

CoreLogic 28-day change
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The following chart shows Sydney’s price rebound more clearly against the 5-city aggregate.

CoreLogic 28 day change

CoreLogic’s Tim Lawless commented over the weekend that buyers have “clearly responded positively post rate hike, moving from below average levels to about average levels”.

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“There has been a real changing of the guard”, Lawless said. “Now, mid-sized capitals like Brisbane and Perth are sitting at the bottom of the list, while Sydney and Melbourne seem to be leading a mild recovery trend, which is a real turnaround from where those markets were pre-rate cut”.

Sydney is the nation’s most expensive market and should benefit the most from the three additional rate cuts expected this calendar year.

About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.