Rundown Sydney home sells for $2.4m, highlighting how tough Australian housing market is to crack

The sale of a rundown three-bedroom shack in Sydney’s inner west has demonstrated just how hot Australia’s real estate market is, with the agent for the property describing it as the “craziest auction” he has ever seen.

The median cost of a home in Australia has grown to $794,000, with dwelling prices increasing by eight per cent in the 2023-24 financial year and spelling bad news for people trying to get on the property ladder.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Sydney’s housing affordability rate sinks to a 30-year low.

The hot market was on full display on The Parade in Enfield where a dilapidated home that will require a complete makeover attracted dozens of bidders at the weekend.

The 570sqm property - which the agent said had “unbridled potential” with “endless possibilities” - sold for $2.41 million, more than $400,000 above the reserve price.

“It’s probably the craziest auction I have ever seen in real estate,” agent Matthew Blackmore of Richards Matthews Real Estate said.

It comes as hundreds of social and affordable homes were promised for Sydney’s inner south, with the state government racing to meet housing targets.

A vacant and overgrown patch of land in North Eveleigh is set to be transformed, with 500 dwellings to pop up on the rundown site near Redfern station. Fifty per cent will be social and affordable housing.

It is one of four government-owned sites being set aside to combat the housing crisis, including Samantha Riley Dr in Kellyville, Menangle Rd in Camden and Paramatta Rd in Camperdown.

Forty other locations are still to be announced

The plans are part of a broader push towards the state’s goal of building 378,000 homes by the year 2029 and the clock is ticking as house prices continue to soar

“Conditions are pretty difficult at the moment. Affordability is at its lowest point in at least the past three decades,” Proptrack senior economist Eleanor Creagh said.