An investor who owned other units in an iconic Pyrmont building paid $666,000 for another at auction on Saturday, beating a first home hopeful for the keys, as Sydney’s auction rate hit its lowest level this year.
The renovated corner apartment in the heritage Goldsbrough building, a converted wool shed, at 1101/243-271 Pyrmont Street has a stylish kitchen, city views and is close to Darling Harbour and Chinatown.
The property was one of 807 scheduled to go to auction in Sydney last week. By Saturday evening, Domain recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 46 per cent from 472 reported results throughout the week, while 176 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.
The early reading on the clearance rate on June 20 was 47 per cent, but has since tended to hold above 50 per cent, although figures are revised as more results are reported. Since then, the cash rate has been increased a fourth time.
Two parties registered for the one-bedroom Pyrmont home with a guided range of $595,000 to $645,000, and both competed fiercely.
Bidding opened at $600,000 and climbed in $10,000, $5000, $1000 and $500 rises.
The home sold for $31,000 above its $635,000 reserve for $666,000 under the hammer to an investor who owned multiple units inside the building. The underbidder was a first home buyer and has been renting for three years at the property.
LJ Hooker’s John Zheng said buyers could either live, rent long term, rent short term or leave it to the Oaks hotel to manage.
“This… is a landmark heritage building in Pyrmont. Everybody knows that. People love this building because it has a modern finish but heritage character.”
Zheng said he is noticing that the “bottom end of the market is actually very strong… Anything under $800,000 we actually sell very fast.”
The buyer is from Dural. The flat last traded for $462,000 in 2014, records show.
At Bondi Beach, a two-bedroom apartment at 11/151 Hall Street with double lockup garage and close to the sand sold for $2,035,000.
Five registered and four were active. Most were owner occupiers, one was an investor and two were fathers helping their children financially. All were local to the eastern suburbs.
Bidding opened bang on its $1.8 million guide and jumped in $50,000, $25,000 and $5000 increments until it sold for $35,000 above its $2 million reserve to a single person.
Selling agent Ron Bauer from PPD said, “the only fear around it was that we just know how hard the market is. And I was waiting for something to go wrong, but it didn’t.”
Bauer said Bondi doesn’t “really get hit as hard as other places.”
“We get the sniffles and somewhere out west gets a cold,” he said. “It… always remains a very sought after location. So… when prices sort of come back a little bit, people see that value in coming to an area like Bondi Beach.”
The vendor is an investor who purchased last year and rented it out. The unit last traded for $1.55 million in February 2025, records show.
In Ashfield a three-bedroom house at 12 Clissold Street drew four registered bidders at auction, however most were too cautious to participate.
One person made an opening bid of $1.5 million and increased his offer by a further $50,000. Nobody else made a move. The vendors rejected the $1.55 million offer and the property was passed in.
That afternoon a fifth buyer who was not at the auction enquired about the property and arranged to view it that evening. The family home then sold under auction conditions for $1.65 million which was also its guide and reserve price.
Belle Property’s Norman So said, “what’s common now is the buyers want to see what happens on auction day, and if they are interested, they will progressively send me an offer that’s a bit under the price guide, and slowly work their way up until my vendors accept it.”
So said many deals are getting completed post auction and can take several weeks.
The buyer is a family upsizing from an apartment in Earlwood.
Chief economist at PRD Dr Diaswati Mardiasmo said Domain’s clearance rate of 46 per cent for Sydney is “lowest seen in Sydney for 2026.”
She said, “I think that is definitely a translation of the fourth cash rate hike that we’ve had, which is definitely making quite a lot of people nervous.”
Mardiasmo said the cash rate hike, “does lessen the borrowing power, and this is definitely a reflection of that.”
She added, “at the moment there’s quite a lot of nervous buyers in the market, even more so because they just want to see what’s going on between now and November.”