Rush To Buy As Rates Fall
Sun Herald
Saturday June 8, 1996
ALMOST every home being put up for auction in Sydney is being sold immediately as agents report clearance rates of up to 95 per cent.
Property is taking off with the drop in mortgage interest rates and taxes on refinancing.
The Commonwealth Bank sparked the home lending war at the end of May when it announced the first cut in its variable home loan rate since 1993, a 0.6pc drop to 9.9pc.
ANZ matched the cut on Monday and Advance Bank and the GIO Building Society followed suit on Tuesday, with the GIO lowering its rate to 9.75pc and Advance to 9.9pc.
By yesterday St George, Suncorp Building Society, the Bank of Queensland, Metway Bank, Wide Bay Building Society and Illawarra Mutual Building Society had all cut their rates with Westpac and the National Australia Bank the main hold-outs.
Raine & Horne Bondi Beach yesterday reported an auction clearance rate of about 95pc. At a mid-week auction Nationwide Realty NSW sold nearly 80pc of its listings from Northmead to Edgecliff.
"In Bondi our clearance rates have been virtually 100pc with the few properties that don't sell at auction being sold within the week," said local agent Sandy Kogan.
Ms Kogan recently sold a single-level, semi-detached house in Murriverie Road, North Bondi for $475,000 the first day it was offered.
"We opened it on the Saturday and sold it on the Monday for a big price considering it was next to a big block of flats," Ms Kogan said.
A one-bedroom flat, without views or parking, in Ramsgate Avenue sold for $213,000 which was $23,000-12pc-over the reserve.
"We're on the verge of a boom," Ms Kogan said.
YESTERDAY'S AUCTION RESULTS: page 76.
© 1996 Sun Herald
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