Buyers And Their Cash Are Soon Parted
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday September 3, 2001
There were no signs of buyer fatigue as estate agents sold 82 per cent of their 168 weekend auction listings.
Prices ranged from $194,000 for a two-bedroom Auburn flat to $2.35 million for a five-bedroom house in Turramurra. The auction volume was a mirror image of the same weekend in September last year, but the clearance rate last year was 66 per cent.
House prices averaged $688,000 compared with $540,000 last year, according to the Sydney Morning Herald Home Price Guide.
A 1920s property in Eastern Avenue, Kensington which last sold for $350,000 in 1992 fetched $1.19 million, while a Victorian semi in Mosman fetched $790,000. The renovated three-bedroom Glover Street house last sold for $531,000 in 1998.
A two-bedroom house in Marine Parade, Lurline Bay, with approved plans for a second storey, fetched $1.12 million. It last sold in 1994 for $325,000. In Bexley North, a renovated art deco house in Mainerd Avenue fetched $471,000. The three-bedroom property had been renovated since it last sold in 1998 for $310,000. A three-bedroom townhouse in Myrtle Street, Crows Nest, which last sold for $375,000 in 1996, went for $700,000. A four-bedroom terrace in Portman Street, Zetland, which in 1994 cost $240,000, went for $600,000.
The record winter auctions meant a big tax windfall for the State Treasury.
Buyers contributed $78 million in conveyance stamp duty revenue over the past three months. This compared favourably with last winter's tally of $36 million in duties.
During the three-month period agents sold 3,400 houses and units, representing 73 per cent of their 4,600 auction listings totalling $2.1 billion. Last year agents sold just 50 per cent of their 3,560 listings for a $998 million total.
The biggest stamp duty contributions to the Treasury came from the upper end of the market, with six-figure auction sales adding $22 million. The May budget estimated stamp duty in the 2000-2001 financial year at $2.15 billion, with the final figure yet to be released.
© 2001 Sydney Morning Herald