Sydney sellers have stopped waiting for auction day, with a significant number of homes listed for auction selling before the hammer gets the chance to fall.
Last weekend, more Sydney homes were sold prior to auction than under the hammer.
Real estate agents say this trend has been fairly consistent for months, despite Spring traditionally being the busiest season for auction sales.
Is it a case of sellers getting cold feet, or are buyers prepared to make big offers to secure a home?
Sydney buyers are willing to go above and beyond with their bids to avoid auction competition.
Roger Wardy of Ray White Touma Taylor said he had mostly seen the latter in recent months, in particular those buyers who have missed out before.
“The bulk of the market views the properties at a certain price point, and then you usually get one or two buyers that have missed out on quite a few properties,” he said.
“They’re just fed up and they just want to buy something and then it starts to get emotional.
“So the gap between the bulk of the market and where the hot buyers are tends to be quite a bit of a gap for the owner to refuse, so that’s why they decide to sell prior.”
Mr Wardy said despite their frustration, buyers were not making a mistake by being bullish with their bidding.
“They kind of get in a mode of just going to look, I’ll pay extra to get it now,” he said, “but then they thank themselves later, because the market goes up.”
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This home on Kyogle St, Eastlakes sold prior to auction to break a suburb record.
The home attracted a bid of $3.43m.
In the last month, Mr Wardy said he had sold nine properties prior to auction.
The $3.43m sale of 3 Kyogle St, Eastlakes, sold prior to auction for a new suburb record.
Mr Wardy said the five-bedroom home smashed the previous record of $3.2m.
Nearby 17 Virginia St in Kensington also sold prior to auction in the mid $5m’s on October 25.
Mr Wardy said the sale saw a couple who had been looking for a property for over a year-and-a-half finally secure a new home with more room for their kids.
Elsewhere in Kensington, the prior sale of 63 Samuel Terry Ave set a new record for the street at $4.5m.
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17 Virginia Street, Kensington sold prior to auction in the mid-$5m range, well above the suburb’s median.
This nearby home on Samuel Terry Ave, Kensington also sold prior to auction for $4.5m.
In the north, Emma Blake of Ray White Northern Beaches said those buyers securing properties prior to auction tended to have one thing in common.
“They’re generally people that are seasoned buyers,” she said.
“They’re usually families or people downsizing from the north shore, so they’re relatively educated buyers.
“Once they find what they want, they’re happy to buy it prior to auction.”
121 Waterview St, Mona Vale was bought prior to auction for $2.85m, after nine months of the buyers missing out.
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A young couple purchased this home on Waterview St, Mona Vale prior to auction after searching for a year-and-a-half.
They had previously missed out on this home on Beaumont Cr, Bayview, which also sold prior to auction.
Ms Blake said the young couple were “heartbroken” after missing out on a number of properties including 17 Beaumont Cres.
It is clear they learned from their mistakes, with the four-bedroom home in Bayview also being sold prior to auction for $2.765m.
Ms Blake said the fact buyers were willing to pay above market price meant they had confidence in the areas they were buying in.
In the Northern Beaches, she said “a lot of buyers” were becoming “a lot more confident in the market.”
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