As Santa and Rudolph prepare to file a flight plan, the Sydney Morning Herald and Australian Property Monitors report there were still a few hundred sellers (300+) in Sydney hoping all their Christmases would come at once.

The “snapshot” that appears at the top of the report states that of the 320 auctions listed yesterday, results were obtained for 254 (224 + 30).

The agents helped in that department by filing results for 79% of the listed auctions – 7% up from 72% last week.

Note:   In order to encourage agents to help APM collate the most complete stats each Saturday night, we are presenting all results as a percentage of the number of Auctions Listed.  The reason for this is that agents are more likely to report ‘good results’ sooner and that can tilt the figures when results are presented as a % of what agents have bothered to report on Saturday afternoon.  Dig deep ladies and gents.

Anyhow – onto the good stuff!

There are two tables this week.  The first contains yesterdays APM results report sliced and diced.  The second contains a summary of the last three weeks.

A few comments on yesterday:

• It is likely that as the Sydney property “hot tub” cools, agents and sellers will be more judicious when it comes to listing a property for auction.    Sagging suburbs and mouldy product are more likely to miss out on the fun and frolics of auction action.
• The number of Listed Auctions have dropped 73% over the last 2 weeks (850 to 320).  Saint Nick can explain much of that but auction numbers as we move into 2016 will be interesting to watch.
• Pre-Action Panic – At 27% of listed Auctions the panic levels rose 1% on last week with a small increase in ‘sold prior – price not disclosed’.
• Hammer Time – Hammer time cracked 30% (up from 22% last week) with a large 7% increase in gavel smack downs.  Interesting that the increase in the number of Hammer Time success stories was about the same in the lift in the agent reporting rate.  Perhaps word got out that agents should get as many success story results reported as possible on Saturday night.
• Seller Sadness – at 16% of listed auctions (1% down on last week) there are a few less grumpy sellers this morning but enough to demonstrate that there are still plenty of wishful thinkers out there who are not prepared to meet Mr Market!

Table 1 – Saturday 19 December 2015

Table 2 – Summary of recent results.