The auction market is still running hot in Sydney and Melbourne, but auction markets in other capital city around the country were mixed.

The clearance rate in Sydney was 82%, according to Domain.

A two bedroom, one bathroom terrace house at 157 Lawrence Street, Alexandria, sold for $1,423,000. Agent Samuel Pacitto-Rusconi of D'Ettorre said when he first assessed the home, he expected it would sell for between $1.2 million and $1.3 million.

The vendors were "ecstatic", he said, with the better-than-expected result, despite feeling emotional about the sale of the family home. "The family owned the home for 50 years, and walked through before the auction. There were a lot of memories, and it was very emotional," said Pacitto-Rusconi.

There were twelve registered bidders on the night, but the final bidding came down to two parties. The eventual buyer was a Wollongong investor.

Pacitto-Rusconi said the market for small homes is "going gangbusters", and noted that though some foreign buyers were registered as bidders, there were no foreign bidders on the night. Pacitto-Rusconi speculated that the foreign buyer restrictions recently introduced could be slowing demand from that sector of the market.

In Melbourne, there were 950 auctions on Saturday, up from 793 the previous weekend, but down significantly from the 1,101 recorded for the pre-grand final weekend last year. Only 40 properties will go to auction this coming weekend, as Melbournians turn their attention to the most important AFL match of the year.

The most expensive property sold at auction over the weekend in Melbourne was a five-bedroom home at 167 Clarke Street, Northcote, which sold through McGrath Northcote for $4.3 million.

The least expensive property sold in Melbourne was a one bedroom apartments at 1/164 Leamington Street, Reservoir, which sold through Brad Teal Coburg for $216,000.

A four-bedroom home at 1 Princess Street, Kew, sold for $2.46 million. Davide Lettieri, of Marshall White Hawthorn, said there were three bidders at the auction, and the vendors were very happy with the result. 

"Because it being school holidays it's strategically a good time to be selling a home," said Lettieri, explaining that vendors were delaying putting their properties on the market until after the school holidays, but there were still plenty of keen buyers around.

"This whole year there's been very few homes on the market every week," he said, adding sales have been performing "exceptionally well" in his area where family homes are in strong demand.

Adelaide's clearance rate was 77%, Canberra's rate was 66%, and Brisbane only achieved a clearance rate of 53%.

See also:

Get to know Dominic Gibson of Melbourne Acquisitions

Auction clearances steady on the weekend as the nation switches to football

To auction or not to auction?

Auction clearance rates cool as spring volumes bloom