But she warned the market is not in a boom as there is a wide gap between property prices and many buyers’ capacity to pay for a home. If the Reserve Bank decides against further cuts to the cash rate, that could temper the pace of price growth, she said.

By region, Sydney’s auction market was strongest in the eastern suburbs (78 per cent clearance rate) and the Sutherland shire (75.9 per cent).

In Greater Melbourne, the Mornington Peninsula picked up to a 77.8 per cent clearance rate, followed by the outer-east at 74.1 per cent.

Westpac senior economist Matthew Hassan agreed the auction market was responding to lower interest rates as buyer sentiment became less pessimistic at the same time as fewer homes were for sale.

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“Buyers can be quicker to respond to shifting conditions than sellers. It takes a while to organise a property for sale,” he said.

“It looks like we might be caught out a little bit. At the moment, the opening weeks of the spring selling season are seeing demand outstripping supply.”

He said the market is “warming up” – albeit differently across different sub-markets – but not “really stretched”. In a hot market, auction clearance rates can go over 80 per cent.

“It’s a sellers’ market and the demand response is telling us it’s going to become even more so, near term.”

Sydney auctioneer and Cooley Auctions founder Damien Cooley has noticed more registered bidders at auction and more properties selling at or above their reserve prices.

He said many homes scheduled for auction are selling prior, adding the market is property-specific, and noted that more homes will be for sale in spring which will provide a test of the market’s strength.

“It’s generally a challenge to get the first bid, but once you get the first bid, it’s moving pretty quickly,” he said.

“More buyers are willing to open the bidding than they were last year.” Among his company’s Sydney auctions, 7 per cent opened with a vendor’s bid in August, compared with 19 per cent in August last year.

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In Melbourne, Barry Plant chief executive Lisa Pennell said the market had entered its next cycle.

“For some time now the momentum has been building – the early signs were there a few months ago,” she said.

“It’s still a little segmented as it is at the beginning of any upward cycle.”

She said well-priced and well-presented stock has been in demand, given the shortage of tradespeople available to renovate homes needing updates.

“Properties that don’t need work and are well priced are going to attract the most amount of attention and most amount of competition,” Pennell said.

“There is a lot more stock coming to market, so there’s a lot more confidence broadly in the market … I think [prices] will be now playing catch-up.”