Investor rush
CoreLogic reported the highest preliminary clearance rate of the year for Sydney at well above 80 per cent from more than 1,000 planned auctions.
Domain reported a preliminary clearance rate of just above 80 per cent with a median auction price of $1,300,500.
Melbourne posted a similar clearance rate.
The median Sydney auction price was 11 per cent higher than a year ago, when the reported auction clearance rate was only 61.4 per cent.
The freakishly high median auction price result of 25 February has dropped off the 4pMA chart below.
Next week a much lower price on 4 March will drop off, meaning that another record high is a shoo-in.
This mirrors what most dwelling price indexes are now showing, which is median dwelling prices rising to new highs in 2017.
There has been plenty to suggest that investors are piling in to the market to 'get in' ahead of any potential changes to tax legislation.
Despite higher auction numbers, total listings are below where they were last year in each of the most populous capitals, indicating markets that have tightened.
