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The Sydney agency reported record transactions and a healthy auction clearance rate for the month despite a shift in market dynamics across the city.
According to BresicWhitney’s report for the month of October, the firm’s offices sold a total of 127 properties over the month, representing a new transactional record for the brand in over 20 years of operation.
A 10.4 per cent increase on the number of homes sold in September, the results of October 2024 are 29.5 per cent above the same period last year, showing that for this agency at least the market is running at quite a different speed.
An increase in listings across the city’s markets can in part be attributed to the rise in sales, with more stock translating to more transactions. Group head Thomas McGlynn also attributed the group’s success over the month to an overarching strategy that sees its professionals put more focus on the buyer pool than is perhaps common.
“Knowing exactly which buyers are active in the market, introducing underbidders to comparable properties, knowing when and how to guide a seller to transact pre-auction or see a campaign through to auction … these are all factors that make a huge difference in a climate where there is patchiness and caution. Many active in the market now have also been on this journey for some months and are very ready to transact prior to Christmas,” McGlynn commented.
He added that the strategy helps the brand’s agencies avoid an overreliance on inbound enquiry or exposure on the major property websites .
The group’s clearance rates for the month bolster this theory, with October’s success rate reportedly coming in at 85.8 per cent, which is substantially higher than what CoreLogic reported for auction sales more generally across the month, with final figures resting below 60 per cent most weeks of the month.
But that’s not to say that the firm has been immune to the softening conditions felt over Sydney this spring. McGlynn noted that there’s been a particular change in the average days-on-market over the past six months, “particularly where there’s a large gap between what the seller thinks their home is worth and what the buyer thinks it’s worth”.
Even so, he feels that good communication between all parties is serving to bridge this gap to help properties reach a successful sale.
“We do believe that there has been a positive shift among both sellers and buyers, and we’re regularly seeing them committed to reaching mutually beneficial outcomes,” McGlynn said.
Whether this dynamic shift signals that the city has turned into a “buyer’s market” remains to be seen, though McGlynn noted that there are certainly signs that buyers have more leverage now than in years past.
At BresicWhitney, the average number of registered bidders trended down slightly month-on-month, from 5.1 in September to 3.9 in October.
It’s a sign that McGlynn said is symbolic of diluted buyer demand, as a result of more homes for sale in total.
“It’s important to remember that for the last three or so years, the main lifestyle markets across Sydney have been chronically undersupplied. It’s been what you’d call a quintessential ‘sellers’ market’, where not only have properties been constrained but prices have been growing. Now we’re starting to see that shift as buyers have more choice, and there is increased confidence in the stabilising economic outlook now and into 2025,” he commented.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Juliet Helmke
Based in Sydney, Juliet Helmke has a broad range of reporting and editorial experience across the areas of business, technology, entertainment and the arts. She was formerly Senior Editor at The New York Observer.
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