The dad buying property for his teen and the $3.8m dump: Sydney’s wildest auctions of 2025
Sydney’s auction market strengthened during 2025, as three interest rate cuts sparked renewed buyer confidence while few homes were for sale, although enthusiasm waned in late spring.
The expanded first home buyer scheme also drove up demand at the lower end and some first-time buyers spent large sums to get into the market, joining investors, other owner-occupiers and the bank of mum and dad competing on auction floors.
Property values in the harbour city rose 5.1 per cent over the last year to November to a median value of $1,269,659, on Cotality data. But, Tim Lawless, Cotality’s research director said in the latest Home Value Index, there were indications affordability was “putting a ceiling on growth.”
“While most markets gained price momentum through spring, Sydney’s monthly growth rate looks to have peaked at 0.9 per cent in August,” said the research company. For November, Sydney’s growth rate was 0.5 per cent.
Sydney’s auction clearance rate showed a similar trajectory.
The clearance rate for 2025 peaked in September at 71.2 per cent, Domain data showed, easing back to 63 per cent in November. A clearance rate of about 60 per cent suggests a balanced market.
The early part of 2025 was marked by green shoots of optimism. A long-awaited February rate cut, the first since November 2020, boosted confidence even though it meant only a modest increase to borrowing capacity.
On the first weekend after the February cut, a split-level home in St Peters, once the neighbour’s driveway, sold for $2,020,000 to first home buyers. It was guided at $1.6 million.
A young couple who paid $4.98 million for a four-bedroom home in Roseville and bought in March, said February’s rate cut pushed them to purchase rather than waiting for future cuts that could push up demand. One agent said at the time some buyers may feel some urgency to secure their purchase, with fears of increased future competition.
A single buyer in her mid-20s bought a Lane Cove home for $2.15 million that she saw for the first time on auction day.
Towards the middle of the year, agents reported an uptick in buyer positivity, while others suggested limited supply was also driving demand. Meanwhile, views of the harbour bridge attracted buyers.
In early March, a Brisbane buyer won the keys to a one-bedroom apartment in Neutral Bay for $1.44 million. The selling agent said the rate cut “gave it a little bit of a blast.” A Chatswood owner-occupier paid $815,000 for a Wollstonecraft one-bedder in April. It had a $730,000 reserve.
Two further rate cuts in May and August propelled the Sydney auction market along as buyers felt more confident, but also competitive. Through spring, tight advertised supply levels skewed selling conditions towards vendors, over buyers.
Buyers looking to make improvements was another theme this year.
A buyer paid $3.76 million for a Lindfield home with a pool, making plans to knock it down, rebuild it and live in it. There was interest in the property with 120 groups at open homes. In Ryde, all five registered bidders for a four-bedroom home intended to replace the four-bedder with a new build, said the listing agent.
Investors were also active through the year, competing with owner occupiers.
In East Ryde, an investor paid $2,080,000 for a four-bedroom house intending to rent it out and probably knock down in future. The buyer outbid a builder and families from Ryde, Lane Cove and the inner west.
In August, an investor paid $2,385,000 for a Paddington terrace, with plans to make cosmetic updates and list it as a rental. The buyer outbid a developer, investors and young families.
The Sydney market got a further boost from buyers eligible for the Australian Government 5% Deposit Scheme which expanded in early October, allowing for property price cap of $1.5 million, with no limits on spots in the scheme.
Some investors and owner-occupiers jumped ahead and bought over concerns that competition was set to ramp up.
And parents were on hand to help. In September, one forward-thinking father paid $1.1 million for an art deco apartment in Stanmore for his 14-year-old daughter, outbidding first home buyers from the inner west. In Menai, parents bought a renovated, four-bedroom brick home for their adult children to eventually live in. They paid $2.15 million in December.
At the end of September, first home buyers ended a three-year property search with nervous, late-night bidding from overseas for a Rosebery apartment.
There were strong sales late in the year, even though the RBA held rates at its December meeting, and the worsening outlook for rate relief put downwards pressure on the clearance rate in the last few months.
A derelict Bronte home without a front door sold for $3,835,000, $835,000 over reserve. The selling agent said buyers saw the value of the land.
Sydney media power couple Lisa Wilkinson and Peter FitzSimons’s Cremorne home passed in at $24.5 million, but sold later.
In the inner west, an apartment that looked like a house sold for $1,356,000 under the hammer to first home buyers who outbid fellow debutants.
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