September 2026 · Issue #7
Sydney auctions are under 50%. I’m still taking a home under the hammer
If you read the national property pages this week, you’ll have seen Sydney’s auction market described as buyers “calling the shots.” Clearance rates there have slid to around 47%, against roughly 69% the same time last year, and about one in four scheduled auctions is being withdrawn before the day. Domain’s chief economist, Nicola Powell, put it bluntly: the “buyer pool has shrunk and is not deep enough to sustain a successful auction… the essence of urgency just isn’t there any more.”
So why am I taking a home to auction in October? Because the lesson from Sydney isn’t “auctions are dead.” It’s “half-hearted campaigns get found out in a slower market.”
Sydney auctions, by the numbers
| Clearance rate, recent low | ~47% |
| Same period a year earlier | ~69% |
| “Balanced market” benchmark | ~60% |
| Auctions withdrawn before the day | ~25% |
| Sales agreed before auction day | ~50% |
We were never a Saturday-clearance-rate market
Sydney lives and dies by the weekend auction number. The Redlands mostly sells by private treaty — at kitchen tables, over a week or two, with a bit of back-and-forth. So when a Sydney clearance rate drops, it doesn’t map onto Thornlands or Cleveland the way the headline implies. What does travel north is the mood: buyers everywhere feel they have more time and more choice than a year ago, and they negotiate like it.
An open-ended “offers invited” listing in a hesitant market invites hesitation. A date on the calendar doesn’t.
Why a date still works
When buyers aren’t in a hurry, the seller’s job is to give them a reason to decide. A well-run auction does three things a drifting private-treaty campaign can’t: it puts every interested party in the same place on the same day so they can see they’re not alone; it sets a deadline that stops the “we’ll think about it over the weekend” loop; and it forces the seller to be realistic about the reserve before the campaign starts, which is exactly the discipline this market rewards. Half of Sydney’s auction sales are being agreed before auction day — that’s not the method failing, that’s the deadline doing its job.
Two caveats, because I’d rather you hear them from me. Auction suits some homes and not others — a property with genuine scarcity and broad appeal, yes; a very ordinary home in a well-supplied pocket, probably not. And the campaign has to be complete: strong photography, the right price guidance, a proper buyer database, and an auctioneer who can actually run a room. Skip any of those and Sydney’s numbers become yours.
The Redlands read
One under the hammer in October — and one that isn’t
17 Elysium Road, Rochedale South goes to auction on site on Saturday 10 October at 2:00pm — a double-storey family home on a generous 858m² block a short run from the motorway. It’s open every Saturday until then. If you’ve never watched an auction close up, come along — it’s the best free education in how the market really prices a home.
And a case in point on “auction suits some homes and not others”: 9 Wilohurst Drive, Redland Bay is now being shown by private appointment only. Same home, same quality — a different method for a different buyer pool. Choosing the right method is the job; the method isn’t the point.
One thing I couldn’t pin down: the exact week the “calling the shots” piece was reporting. The ~47% figure above is Domain’s recent low point from mid-year; the trend since has stayed soft. Treat the direction as solid and the weekly number as indicative.
Wondering whether your home is an auction home or a private-treaty home? That’s a ten-minute conversation, and I’ll tell you honestly either way.
Ask me
Greg Leigh — local Redlands specialist, Queensland Sotheby’s International Realty. Published 16 September 2026.
Sources: Domain (Sydney clearance-rate low, Dr Nicola Powell); realestate.com.au’s “home buyers calling the shots” report as summarised by Real Estate Weekly (16 September 2026). Auction details from my own campaign records.