Sydney property market hits highest ever auction clearance rate; NSW named country’s strongest economy: Midday Roundup

Only 11.8% of homes that went to auction on Saturday in Sydney were passed in, Fairfax reports.

The record-breaking 88.2% clearance rate comes as bidders in Sydney’s inner west broke suburb-by-suburb records. A 938-square-metre Federation bungalow in Haberfield, for example, was bought for $1,666,000, $215,000 more than the previous record and $166,000 over the reserve.

Other houses in Newington, Leichhardt and Strathfield broke similar records, according to Domain Group.

Economist Dr Andrew Wilson told Fairfax a clearance rate of 90% in Sydney would once have been “outrageous”, however “now it’s becoming more likely.”

NSW named country’s strongest economy

The booming property market is continuing to prop up the New South Wales economy, leading the state to be named the county’s best performing state financially.

CommSec’s quarterly State of the States report, released today, shows NSW has maintained the position it previously shared with the Northern Territory as Australia’s leading state economy.

NSW retained its top ranking on population growth and retail trade, as well as pipping the other states on dwelling starts.

The NT ranked as the nation’s second top economy and Western Australia third, while Tasmania was the country’s worst preforming state.

The index is ranked on eight key indicators including economic growth; retail spending; equipment investment; unemployment; construction work done; population growth; housing finance and dwelling commencements.

Local shares down

The Aussie share market has opened poorly this morning, following negative leads from international markets.

“The Australian sharemarket has opened the week deep in the red directly influenced by the negative session on Wall Street as the market was again hit with concerns out of Greece and its debt issues, while a packed and mixed release of earnings in the U.S and the moves from the People’s Bank of China which saw the central bank slash the reserve requirements for banks in steps to stimulate their economy saw profits taken today,” said Tristan K’Nell, head of trading at Quay Equities, in a statement.

The S&P/ASX200 benchmark was down 50.9 points to 5827 points at 12:15pm AEST. On Friday, the Dow Jones closed down 1.54%, falling 279.47 points to 17,826.3 points.