A RECORD 2150 vendors have scheduled December auctions, which could boost Sydney's annual auction sales tally to $15.7 billion, well above the $9.9 billion in sales last year and the $6.9 billion of 2008.
The previous annual auction record was $10.1 billion in 2007.
There have been 25,000 auctions this year yielding $14.6 billion from 16800 sales, at an average of $870,000.
With 3500 listings, November was the year's busiest auction month. But a 59 per cent clearance rate in the month was the weakest clearance result since December 2008.
Among the successful November sellers were the Fair Trading Minister, Virginia Judge, and her ex-husband, Dr Ofo Niumeitolu, albeit with slightly reduced price expectations. Camelot, their property in Strathfield, sold at an undisclosed price shortly after it was passed in at $1,305,000. Last traded in 1994 for $505,000, the Federation house had hopes of $1.4 million-plus.
A late run of listings has prompted about 650 auctions this weekend and next weekend, Australian Property Monitors said.
About 395 auctions are scheduled for the last pre-Christmas Saturday, December 18, which is 20 per cent more than the same weekend last year.
Auctions are scheduled through to December 22, when a two-bedroom, two-bathroom Drummoyne unit with two car spaces in the Elani complex on Park Avenue has been listed with hopes of $650,000-plus.
''We have our first open-for-inspection this weekend, and if we can sell it before auction we will,'' its LJ Hooker listing agent, Tom Scarpignato, said.
Private treaty negotiations will continue until Christmas Eve and then New Year's Eve with vendors hoping for the customary bounce as buyers seek to finalise contracts before the end of the year.
Many December property sales conclude previously unsuccessful auction campaigns.
The Rismark International economist Chris Joye spent $1.85 million on Christmas Eve last year at North Bondi, maintaining it was a good time to crunch the deal given the vendors had wanted $2.15 million after an unsuccessful auction in early December.
The highest sale last Christmas Eve was when Stephen Bellotti, the head of global fund managers BlueSkyCapital, signed contracts for a $9 million Mosman house that had $12 million expectations on its initial listing in 2008.
There were 620 residential sales on December 24 last year, up on the 500 on Christmas Eve 2008 that included the luxury furniture retailer Anthony Scali paying $18.45 million in Point Piper, having offered $24 million earlier in the year.
There were 400 residential sales between Boxing Day and New Year's Eve last year.
This December's tally exceeds last year's record of 1860 listed auctions, which rose when agents detected a last-minute upswing in prices.
The average December volume over the past decade has been 1360.
