Sydney - North Shore Spring 2026 Update

In my last North Shore update I said the property market is like a scrambled egg: some of it is lumpy and some of it is smooth. Six years on, that has never been truer than it is this spring. The headlines are all about falling prices and rising rates, and much of that is fair. But spend your Saturdays walking through opens in Mosman, Cremorne and Neutral Bay, as I do, and you see two markets running side by side. The A-grade home in a sought-after pocket still draws a crowd and a strong result. Everything else is sitting longer, attracting fewer bidders and, more and more, selling for less than the vendor first hoped.

The Reserve Bank lifted the cash rate to 4.85% on 3 November, its fifth rise this year and the highest setting since November 2008 (Savings.com.au). Cotality’s index fell 1.2% nationally in October, the seventh monthly fall in a row, and values now sit 6.7% below their March peak. Homes are taking a median 39 days to sell and vendor discounting has widened to 4.7% (ABC News). Auctions tell the same story. Sydney’s final clearance rate averaged 47% across October, and the last weekend of the month came in at just 41.7% (MacroBusiness, citing Cotality). A year ago we were used to seeing clearance rates of around 70%. When I last wrote, buyers were queuing 20 deep at first opens in Mosman. This spring the queues are shorter, and the buyers who do turn up are far more measured. They are doing their homework, waiting for building reports and negotiating hard on anything with a flaw.

The best results this spring have come from family homes with rare attributes, from the harbourside villages of Mosman and Cremorne up the ridge to St Ives and Wahroonga. Most of them sold before auction day (Domain auction results). As usual, Mosman’s best houses changed hands with the price kept quiet. The standout was 4 Lennox Street, a five-bedroom family home on around 904 square metres, which sold before auction in October through McGrath. Nearby, 18 Wyong Road sold before auction and 36 Euryalus Street sold at auction. In Cremorne, the architect-designed home at 51 Young Lane sold at auction in October after being listed in September with a $4m guide. Next door in Neutral Bay, 185 Ben Boyd Road sold before auction. Apartments with a view and level access are still finding buyers. A three-bedroom apartment at 14/37 Stanton Road, Mosman sold at auction for $2.3m. A two-bedroom apartment at 3/64 Cremorne Road, Cremorne Point sold prior to auction for $2m. Further up the North Shore, the family home on a big block is the asset buyers want. The top disclosed result came from St Ives, where a five-bedroom house at 36 Catherine Street sold prior to auction for $4.5m in mid-September. In Roseville, 44 Moore Street sold under the hammer for $3.755m, and in Roseville Chase 16 Allan Street sold at auction for $3.41m. A five-bedroom house at 21 Clifford Street, Gordon sold at auction for $3.26m, and 8 Cynthia Street, Pymble sold before auction for $2.95m. Large homes at 28 Charles Street, Killara and 22 Brisbane Avenue, East Lindfield also sold, with the prices withheld. The gap between the harbour and the ridge is striking. For the price of a good Mosman apartment, a family can buy a five-bedroom house in Wahroonga, where 8 Kerela Avenue sold before auction for $2.2m. That is supply and demand at work, and it is why the upper North Shore remains such good value for growing families.

The biggest change around Mosman this year is not happening at auction. It is happening on the planning desk. Under the NSW Government’s Low and Mid-Rise Housing reforms, groups of neighbours in Mosman are banding together to sell whole streetscapes to developers. In October alone, the 12 owners of a 1970s block at 6 Mandolong Road put their building on the market in one line through Colliers. Six owners at 92 Bradleys Head Road followed a week later, with expressions of interest closing on 18 November. The state has also approved the Rangers Avenue super site, which will see seven Mosman homes demolished (Mosman Collective). For home buyers this matters in two ways. Older apartment blocks near the village and transport may now be worth more to a developer than to an owner-occupier. And in a few years, Mosman will have a wave of new, level-access apartments aimed squarely at downsizers.

That downsizer buyer is the one to watch. Marize Bellomo of Stone Real Estate Mosman, who is selling the final homes at Mosman Residences on Clifford Street, put it well: “For many Mosman buyers, downsizing isn’t about leaving the area, it is about finding the right home that allows them to stay.” She added a point I see at every open: “What we consistently see is that these buyers are very clear about what they want. They are looking closely at floorplans, natural light, storage, generous living areas and how the home will function day to day. They are not necessarily in a hurry, which means the right property has to give them a compelling reason to move” (Mosman Collective). That is the market in a nutshell. Buyers are not in a hurry, so the property has to earn the sale.

The Reserve Bank meets again on 7–8 December, and with underlying inflation at 3.7% another rise cannot be ruled out. I will leave the rate predictions to the economists. What I will say is that the North Shore remains a scrambled egg. A-grade homes in the best pockets of Mosman, Cremorne and the upper North Shore are still selling well, often before auction, because owners here rarely have to sell. The B-grade home, the one with the busy road, the awkward layout or the tired renovation, is where buyers now hold the upper hand. For buyers, this spring has been the best chance in years to negotiate without 20 other people in the room. Get your finance approved with room for one more rate rise. Keep an eye on the older apartment blocks being swept up in the Mega Lot wave. And be ready to move before auction day, because that is where the best homes are being sold. Looking for property is still an endurance sport. Let us do the endurance part and help you cross the finish line.