Is low-balling the right strategy in a market like this?
Photo by Samuel Regan-Asante on Unsplash
Sydney's auction clearance rate is sitting in the high-40s to low-50s. Most of the Eastern Beaches isn't even close.
Across late June and July 2026, Sydney's reported clearance rate moved between roughly 46% and 53% week to week — already well under the long-run average of around 64%. It's not new news that this a buyer's market - and that skittish potential buyers are generally nervous to act.
We pulled the Eastern Beaches SQM Research auction data for the same stretch and it's softer again, in most pockets by a wide margin.
Randwick and Clovelly ran the most auctions of any postcode in the sample — 51 across five weeks — and cleared 41.2% of them. That's the most statistically reliable read in the data, and it's still trailing Sydney overall.
Bondi — including Bondi Beach, North Bondi and Tamarama — had the second-largest sample, 36 auctions, and cleared just 30.6%. That's the weakest result of any postcode in this dataset, and 15–22 points under the city average.
It's a similar story across Kensington, Coogee, South Coogee, Bondi Junction, Queens Park, Bronte and Waverley, all hovering in the mid 30's - with some variation based on limited volumes in those more tightly held suburbs.
This isn't a case of a few soft suburbs. It's the two highest-volume, most liquid Eastern Suburbs auction markets — Bondi and Randwick/Clovelly — both clearing meaningfully under the Sydney average, at a time when Sydney is already well under its own long-run norm.
For sellers, that's a market asking for realistic reserves and quicker moves to negotiation. For buyers, it's leverage: auctions with room to move, more properties reaching post-auction negotiation, and vendors more willing to talk before the hammer falls.
"If you think the solution to buying in a market like this is putting forward a low-ball offer, you're wrong.”
How do you negotiate in a market like this?
If you think the solution to buying in a market like this is putting forward a low-ball offer, you're wrong. It's critical that your offer is fact-based, well-researched and seeded over time. Offending a vendor with an ill-conceived, opportunistic offer is rarely how deals get done. But finding the appropriate balance of fairness with an appreciation of the market as it is, will put you in the best position to secure the property at a great price. Remembering too that that same vendor should be doing exactly the same thing on their next property.
Source: SQM Research auction results and methodology, sqmresearch.com.au.
Mark Timmins is the founder of Marked Buyers Agency, a Sydney-based buyers agency specialising in the Eastern Suburbs and Lower North Shore. markedbuyersagency.com.au
This article contains general market commentary only and does not constitute financial or legal advice. All market data cited is sourced as attributed. Independent financial and legal advice should be obtained before making any property or financial decision.
