Owners rushing to sell

Good luck! And ferries are generally fine, they only service certain areas though. But if I was in Parramatta or Meadowbank and had the options to go to the city in peak hour commuting via ferry, rail, driving or bus, for me, rail wins. Speed and frequency.

 

Auction rates were again < 70%. I, for one welcome this as it puts less pressure/one less excuse for the RBA to cool the market via interest rates. In hindsight, I'm glad APRA slammed the brakes as well because we were going into no man's land territory.

Heard on TV the other day also that building approvals and commencements are now past their peak in Sydney. Beyond the next 12-24 months, we may start to see rents spike up. That will hopefully support prices a bit more because the fundamentals are out of whack atm as everyone knows.

I'm still banking on an orderly slow down and graduation to normalcy in the market. But all in all, I think Sydney has formed a new base and those quietly praying for prices to come back to a la 2012 prices will be disappointed. As I said before, the opportunity for the average investor to break into the Sydney market has closed - possibly forever.

 

Spoke to a friend who is an agent in inner west Sydney. Rental prices are coming under pressure. Rents for larger self detached houses are being reduced regularly.

Many many examples of >10% rent reductions in last couple of years.

 

It seems Sydney inner city property prices must keep going up to ensure capital gains because it seems it is certainly NOT the yield increase from rent that will make an investment profitable anytime soon.

 

That's news! My rent increased $20.

 

Yes news to me as well

 

News to me too, I have been expecting rental demand to increase as people are priced out of buying, reluctant to purchase at peak, or selling at peak to rent.

 

The inference I'm getting from studying rental listings where my properties are (inner, fringe and outer) is that its a mixed bag. Having said that, I reckon there's a little more pressure upwards than say, same time a year ago.

 

Mixed bag sounds right. It'll be interesting to see what happens in Spring.

 

I attended some auctions on the weekend. It really is a mixed bag - there was a place in Lilyfield which sold a good $150K above listing and then an uninhabitable Stanmore one which was around $1.3m (arguably not a bad price for the area, would easily need to spend couple hundred grand) and another Stanmore that didn't attract a single bid (called in at $2.08m, I think the vendor was asking too much). With clearance <70% again, I will be interested to see how the Spring season plays out as there should be more listings.

 

Auction listing numbers are down, apart from change in clearance rate.

Sydney auction clearance rates slump below 70 per cent as wary buyers opt out