Sydney Posts Back-To-Back Record Clearance Rates
Another autumn weekend of extraordinary results.
By Terry Christodoulou
Mon, Mar 22, 2021 9:09am
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Auction markets across the country continued to record extraordinary results on March 20, reflecting unprecedented buyer competition.
Despite the dreary weather, the Sydney auction market posted back-to-back record results, exceeding 90% for the third time in four weekends with a clearance rate of 92.4%.
The result is a stark contrast to the coronavirus impacted market of the same weekend last year which reported 64.9% clearance rate.
Auction numbers were higher in Sydney on Saturday with 856 reported, compared to the 716 listed last weekend. Sydney recording a median price for houses sold at auction on the weekend of $1,610,500, 24.7% higher than the same weekend in 2020.
Melbourne’s market also proved strong with a season-high effort of 82.1%, up from last weekend’s 81.5%.
A reported 1117 homes were listed for auction, higher than the previous weekend’s 978 but lower than 1184 reported over the same weekend of 2020.
Melbourne’s median house price sold at auction on the weekend was $980,000 which is 6.8% higher than the 918,000 recorded over the same weekend last year.
Listings increased in all capitals compared to last weekend (March 13), with the exception of Canberra. It’s expected that an influx of listings will flood the market at the pre-Easter super Saturday next weekend.
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The imposing stone structures, with towers, turrets and a hot tub room, lord over the landscape near the mountain resort town of Sandpoint.
By Liz Lucking
Mon, Jul 13, 2026 2 min
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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.”
