The residential property auction market in Sydney started summer on a weaker note, as sellers continued to flood the market ahead of the usual seasonal end-of-year lull in the Australian housing market.

Sydney reported a clearance rate of 75.8% on Saturday, which was the lowest recorded by the local market for more than four months, but still significantly higher than the 57.5% recorded on the corresponding weekend last year.

Despite the lower clearance rate, it was nevertheless viewed as a good result for sellers and reflected the sharp rise in listings over recent weekends.

In excess of 870 homes were scheduled for auction at the weekend, which although lower than the previous super Saturday’s year-high 961 auctions, was marginally below the 882 listed over the same weekend last year.

This coming weekend will present another major challenge for the market with around 900 property auctions scheduled to take place.