Real Estate

Easter sales down over tighter lending bid

☐ Leanne Pilkington.

IT’S traditionally a strong season for property auctions, but the Easter holiday period has taken a battering this year amid tighter bank lending rules.

Sydney hosted 927 auctions last week, with preliminary results returning a 62.9 per cent clearance rate across 577 results.


Over the previous week, 742 auctions were held across the city and a final clearance rate of 54.9 per cent was recorded.


This time last year, 61.5 per cent of the 795 Sydney homes auctioned were successful.


REINSW President Leanne Pilkington said agents were happy with the pre-Easter figures.


“With Easter this weekend, agents are expecting much lower numbers, but continue to be happy with the consistency in results, despite lower transaction numbers,”

Leanne Pilkington


“We’re seeing a lot fewer listings overall and fewer auctions because there are fewer buyers out there.


“Auctions are not the best strategy to sell a property at the moment because finance is much more difficult to obtain following the banking royal commission. And to buy under auction conditions, you need all pre-approvals in place.”