Epping home sells $380k over reserve as spring market gains momentum

On a Saturday in early September, a brick bungalow on Abuklea Road in Epping went under the hammer and sold for $2.78 million—$380,000 more than its reserve price. Nineteen groups had registered to bid on the four-bedroom single-level home, though only ten actually competed when the auctioneer opened proceedings at $2 million. The bidding climbed methodically: hundred-thousand-dollar jumps at first, then fifty-thousand, then twenty-five, until the price tightened to ten-thousand increments as it approached the final figure. The property guide had been set at $2.2 million; the reserve at $2.4 million. By the time the hammer fell, the gap between what the vendor had hoped for and what the market delivered had widened considerably.

The winning bidders were a young couple with a child, both originally from the area, drawn to the home's level backyard and its single-story layout. They beat out a local family looking to expand into more space. Catherine Murphy, the sales agent from The Agency Epping, saw the competition as a sign of something larger shifting in the market. The property had appealed across multiple buyer categories—downsizers looking to simplify, families needing more room, investors seeking entry points. "People have really decided to get on with it," Murphy said. "Life goes on. The shock of the budget announcements and interest rate rises has abated and people are getting on with their lives."

This single sale was one data point in a much larger story unfolding across Sydney that weekend. The spring auction season had opened with 521 properties scheduled to go under the hammer in the city's first weekend of the selling push. The volume itself suggested that buyers and sellers alike had moved past the paralysis that had gripped the market in the months following budget uncertainty and successive interest rate increases. Confidence, it seemed, was returning.

In Lavender Bay, a similar pattern emerged. A two-bedroom apartment at 5/7 Waiwera Street sold for $1,535,500—more than $210,000 above its reserve of $1.325 million. Twelve groups had registered to bid; five actually competed. The property guide had been $1.25 million. Bidding opened at $1 million, climbed through increments of $200,000, then $20,000, then $10,000, before settling into the final micro-increments of $5,000, $1,000, and eventually $500 bids as the price approached the sale figure. The successful buyer was upgrading their city apartment. The underbidders included local residents, buyers from Queensland, and one Australian bidder based in Germany.

Adrian Bridges, the sales agent from Raine & Horne Mosman who handled the Lavender Bay sale, framed the result as validation of both the property and the auction process itself. "A property like this resonates with upper north shorians because of its position down the train line," he said. "It is proof that good properties will attract competitive bidding and the auction process is still the most transparent process for buyers and vendors." The comment captured something the market was demonstrating across multiple suburbs and price points: when the property was right and buyer confidence had stabilized, competition returned quickly. The spring market was not just opening—it was accelerating.