Clearance Rates Hit New Highs In Sydney

Covering off the last weekend of summer, clearance rates from around the country’s top markets were high this weekend, as Sydney reported a record weekend clearance rate of 90.0% – higher than the previous weekend’s 87.3% and the 85.8% reported for the same weekend last year.

Sydney recorded a median price for houses sold at auction on the weekend of $1,645,000, lower than last weekend’s $1,692,500 but 14.2% higher than the $1,440,000 recorded over the same weekend last year.

Sydney’s Central Coast, North West, Northern Beaches and Upper North Shore fared best, with the city’s West performing weakest with an albeit solid 82.1%. Units cleared slightly below that of houses at 88.9%.

Melbourne also continued to recover from its recent lockdown reporting its highest clearance rate for three weeks of 82.0%, higher than the previous weekend’s figure of 79.6% and the 80.4% reported over the same weekend last year with a median price of $1,002,500.

Encouragingly for Melbourne, auction numbers again increased sharply to 1211 compared to the previous weekend’s 1004. However, listing numbers have still fallen from last year’s figures of 1384 for the same weekend last year.

Sydney featured 734 auctions this weekend compared to last year’s 911.

Around the country, Brisbane saw a clearance rate of 73.4%, down from last week’s 83.0% but up on last year’s 65.8%. Adelaide was reasonably steady at 85% from last week’s 87.5% and up on last year’s 71.1% while Canberra was also consistent performing at 85.9% from last week’s 85.2% and up from 70.3.%

Data powered by Dr Andrew Wilson of MyHousingMarket.com.au

Idaho is not a place that’s often associated with Medieval castles, but a pair have just hit the market for $6.25 million.

The imposing stone structures have towers, turrets, ramparts, arrow-slit windows and even a drawbridge, and might just be the most authentic-looking castles this side of the Atlantic.

“Who expects to see a castle like this in Idaho?” said listing agent Brenda Burk of Coldwell Banker Schneidmiller Realty, who brought the property to the market last week. They are, she said, “extremely unusual.”

Schweitzer Castle and Château de Melusine, as they’re known, stand within Schweitzer Mountain Resort in the Selkirk Mountains and overlook the nearby mountain resort town of Sandpoint. They take in panoramic views of Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho’s largest lake.

The pair of ski-in/ski-out homes each have three bedrooms, two bathrooms and three stories, Burk explained. They are “so authentic,” she said. “Every single stone was handlaid.”

Schweitzer Castle, she said, wasn’t built for “functionality,” but has been modernized and adapted and now has everything a 21st-century residence requires, along with a dungeon, which for some buyers may also be a requisite.

The chateau, meanwhile, has a hot tub room with mountain views, as well as a garage.

The property is being sold furnished, and will come complete with the hand-carved statues, armor, mounted swords, stained-glass windows and a host of antiques dating to the 15th and 16th centuries.

The owner, an antique collector who couldn’t be reached for comment, “is always looking for that hidden jewel and he found that here,” Burk said.

The next custodian is likely to stem from a varied pool of buyers, Burk said, that would include “the trophy-home buyer, someone who can say ‘I own a castle.’”

The property could also appeal to someone looking for a vacation home, or a multi-generational estate, and beyond that “there’s the dreamers,” she said. “We definitely try to market to people who like Medieval history or maybe do Renaissance fairs.”

The seller “really wants it to go to someone with the same passion.”

Clearance Rates Hit New Highs In Sydney

With the median house price sold in the Harbour City tipping $1.6 million.

The imposing stone structures, with towers, turrets and a hot tub room, lord over the landscape near the mountain resort town of Sandpoint.