The market is not rejecting auctions. It is rejecting unrealistic pricing. 87% of all LNS sales went through an auction campaign this year.
 
Raine & Horne Lower North Shore Team Howe Weekly  ·  22 June 2026
 
Team Howe Market Brief  ·  Lower North Shore Houses
Week ending 22 June 2026

The market is not rejecting auctions.
It is rejecting unrealistic pricing.

 
Dear Readers,
If you have been watching the weekly clearance rates, you could be forgiven for thinking the auction market on the Lower North Shore is in trouble.
Domain reported a Sydney clearance rate of 47% this week, down 22 percentage points from the same week last year (69%).
Locally, only 28% of current listings are scheduled for auction, compared with almost 48% at the peak in May.
That is a meaningful shift. But the clearance rate is also the wrong number to obsess over.
Because the real question is not whether properties are selling under the hammer.
The real question is whether buyers are engaging during the campaign.
And the actual data tells a very different story.
“It is not the auction that creates demand. It is the campaign that creates competition.”
The Lower North Shore Story — 2026 YTD
From 1 January to 22 June 2026:
•819 houses listed
•440 houses sold
•127 withdrawn (16%)
•252 currently on the market (30%)
Of the 440 sales:
•189 sales (43%) sold BEFORE auction
•74 sales (17%) sold UNDER the hammer
•120 sales (27%) sold AFTER auction
•57 sales (13%) sold under private treaty
Add together the properties sold before, during and after auction and the result is striking.
A total of 383 sales — or 87% of all houses sold on the Lower North Shore this year — went through an auction campaign. Only 13% sold via private treaty.
Lower North Shore statistics also show that 54% of listings sold (440 of 819) — a healthy conversion rate in a market many are calling soft.
LNS Market Dashboard
The conclusion is simple. Auction day is not the market.
The campaign is the market.
The auction campaign creates a structured period where buyers know there is a deadline, competition is visible and hesitation can cost them the property.
Whether the property sells on day 18, day 28 or day 35 is far less important than whether the campaign creates competition.
“Auction day is simply the final pressure test. It is not the whole game.”
What Buyers Are Telling Us
The past eight weeks reveal a clear trend.
•Total listings have grown from 245 to 252
•Median asking prices have fallen from $4.30 million to $4.00 million
•Median days on market have extended from 46 to 52 days
Buyers remain active. But they are disciplined.
They will compete aggressively for quality homes that are well-positioned and realistically priced.
They will also walk away quickly when expectations exceed market reality.
This is why pricing, presentation and strategy matter more than the method of sale itself.
The Statistic That Matters Most
Of the 252 active listings currently on the market:
•141 properties (56%) have been listed for less than 60 days
•87 properties (35%) have been listed for more than 90 days
•42 properties have been on the market for more than 180 days
•17 properties have been available for more than 365 days
These are not properties without buyers. They are properties without honest pricing.
The market is still transacting. The market is still rewarding quality homes. The market is still producing strong results. What it is no longer doing is rewarding wishful thinking.
Active Listings Distribution
The Pipeline Tells the Same Story
•Auction/EOI count: 88 → 70 (down 18 in one week)
•Auction-to-listing ratio: 34% → 28% (down 6 points)
•Peak was 48% in May — we are now 20 points off peak in roughly six weeks
That is not a wobble. That is vendor sentiment shifting. Sellers — and the agents advising them — are losing confidence in the auction format faster than the YTD data suggests.
Comparing this week’s 252 / 70 / 28% to last week’s 259 / 88 / 34%, the slope is clear.
The auction campaign works only on one condition in today’s market. The pricing strategy must be in line with market expectations.
An honest answer is probably this: vendors who launched at the wrong price last quarter are being conditioned. That is the reason some new listings are choosing private treaty — to avoid the public failure.
LNS Auction Pipeline
The Lesson for Sellers
Many commentators will focus on the falling clearance rate. I think they are looking at the wrong number.
The more important trend is that buyers are becoming more selective, more informed and less willing to stretch beyond what they believe represents fair value.
The market is not rejecting auctions. It is rejecting unrealistic pricing.
The sellers achieving the best results today aren’t winning because of the auction format itself. They are winning because they enter the market with realistic expectations from day one — and the auction campaign then exposes that realistic positioning to real buyer competition.

“In today’s market, honest pricing is no longer a competitive advantage. It is a requirement.”

If you would like a straight conversation about what your home is worth — backed by evidence, not promises — I would be delighted to help.
 
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David Howe signature
David Howe
Partner Agent · Raine & Horne Lower North Shore
Charles Tang signature
Charles Tang
Team David Howe · Raine & Horne Lower North Shore
Raine & Horne Lower North Shore
Lower North Shore
140 Sailors Bay Road, Northbridge NSW 2063
Sources: Team Howe market data Jan–22 Jun 2026; Domain Sydney auction results; REA auction data. Figures are houses only, Lower North Shore. Figures are provided in good faith and may have changed since publication. Interested parties should make their own independent enquiries before relying on any information herein.

© Raine & Horne Lower North Shore. You are receiving this because you have previously been in touch with our office about Lower North Shore property.