Kevin Lee, of Smartline mortgages, said the improved clearance rates were a sign of first-home buyer activity and reaction to thegovernment’s continuation of the first-home buyers grant.

THE property market continued to show signs of recovery at the weekend, with comparatively healthy auction clearance rates and turnover.

The clearance rate in Sydney was 69 per cent, well up on the 48 per cent for the same time last year, said Australian Property Monitors.

More than $77 million worth of property changed hands, the top sale being a three-bedroom house at Cronulla, in the city’s south, going for $2.75m.

In Melbourne, a clearance rate of 72 per cent was a hefty 20 percentage points better than last year’s result. The most expensive was a three-bedroom townhouse in Brighton East, which sold for $1.25m.

Brisbane’s clearance rate of 45per cent also represented a significant improvement on last year’s 23 per cent, while Adelaide’s clearance rate was 66 per cent, up from 39 per cent on the corresponding weekend in 2008.

Kevin Lee, of Smartline mortgages, said the improved clearance rates were a sign of first-home buyer activity and reaction to thegovernment’s continuation of the first-home buyers grant.

“The problem is, getting approvals for loans from banks and other lending institutions is increasingly difficult,” he said.

“I’ve been in the finance industry for 15 years and have never ever seen it this hard. Some of their policies and practices defy reason.”

Australian Property Monitors head of research Yvonne Chan said the auction clearance rates in capital cities remained strong.

“Although medium prices have shown a small growth month on month since the beginning of this year, the activity level is fairly high, mainly due to the record low interest rates and an extension of the first-home buyers grant,” she said.

“From other indicators, such as average days on market, units seem to be performing better than houses. This is the more affordable property type.”

Credit: John Stapleton