Sydney’s auction buyers remain hesitant following economic headwinds and recent price falls – with cautious bidding forcing many vendors to lower expectations to secure a sale.
Recent analysis of PropTrack figures revealed median home values in many Sydney suburbs are now more than 10 per cent below their 2025 levels.
While successful sales are still continuing throughout the market, many are the properties with sellers who are shifting their price expectations to align with the current market conditions.
On Saturday morning an hour long battle on Sydney’s Upper North Shore eventually saw a five-bedroom, two-bathroom home at 57 Park Avenue, Roseville sell for $3.782m.
With five registered bidders and three active, the home’s reserve was set at $3.68m.
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Auctioneer Jason Keen at 57 Park Avenue, Roseville
An opening bid of $3.3m started the competition that was followed by over 30 bids with a range of values including $2,000 to $5,000.
Lead Agent Jessica Cao of Ray White Upper North Shore said the auction started very slow in the beginning, but once the property hit the reserve it went between two buyers and went up quite quickly.
Ms Cao said many vendors are adjusting their prices to ensure a sale in the current market.
“As the market shifts this is exactly how it should be done,” she said.
Auctioneer Jason Keene (L) and Ray White Sales Associate Frank Fu
“Price-wise hopefully it will stabilise from here, because it was quite a sudden 10 to 15 per cent adjustment.
“At the moment we’re seeing the market is trying to find its balance and where the prices are landing.”
Ms Cao said buyers were also more cautious.
“I’ve seen a shift in buyer sentiment and they are not as keen in making offers or certain in where the market is heading to,” she said.
“They are a bit conservative in putting offers at auction or before auction.”
Auctioneer Jason Keen of Ray White said although it was a very positive result at the Roseville auction, there is a lot of consideration with buyers at the moment.
57 Park Avenue, Roseville
“It’s not just quite as easy to get those extra couple of bids that you do need,” he said.
Mr Keen added vendors have also adjusted their state of mind.
“They (vendors) are tending to be a little more flexible to meet the market.
“We’ve seen a good mix of properties sell a little bit over reserve, but plenty that aren’t quite getting to reserve.
“I think the buyers showing that little bit of hesitancy at auction is convincing the vendors in front of their very eyes that they do need to flex a bit to meet the market.”
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21 Pickersgill Street, Kings Langley
This North-West home sold under the hammer, clearing its $1.58m guide.
The five-bedroom at 21 Pickersgill Street, Kings Langley sold for $1.6825m with an adjusted reserve to match.
With four registered bidders and three active via McGrath Parramatta’s Kim McChlery and Jen Anderson, the competition was not without caution from buyers.
“Buyers were very hesitant,” Ms McChlery said.
“We were clawing our way at $5,000 at a time.”
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3 Lennox Street, Gordon
This Upper North Shore home sold under the hammer for $8.85m.
With four registered bidders and three active, the five-bedroom, six-bathroom home at 3 Lennox Street, Gordon sold directly at its reserve price.
“It was quite a hot competition,” Lead agent Coco Cui Roskam of Ray White Upper North Shore said.
Ms Roskam said all of the interested buyers lived locally, while the vendors were happy with the price.
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