Investors are cashing in on Sydney’s strong pre-Easter property market by selling homes across the city, a trend which contributed towards a record-breaking property auction performance on Saturday, when an unprecedented 1,152 homes were scheduled for auction – the highest ever weekend offering, beating the previous record of 1,128 which was set on the pre-Easter weekend of 2015.

Sydney also recorded its highest ever number of weekend auction sales last Saturday with $760.9m (£460m) worth of property changing hands.

The sharp rise in listings did not have an adverse impact on the clearance rate of 80.9%, which was higher than the 70.3% recorded over the same weekend last year.

The average auction price on Saturday was $1.32m (£1.1m), up 9.1% on the $1.21m (£1m) recorded over the corresponding weekend last year.

Sydney has now recorded five consecutive weekends with clearance rates above 80% for the first time in almost two years, supported in part by low mortgage rates.

Residential property prices in Sydney are currently increasing at their fastest pace in 15 years.