A renovated Surry Hills terrace passed in at auction this weekend after drawing just one registered bidder — and now it looks like the property will end up on the rental market rather than find a new owner.
The three-bedroom, two-bathroom home at 97 Fitzroy Street went to auction on Saturday with a price guide of $2.5 million — the same figure the property last changed hands for in 2024. The sole registered bidder opened at $2.2 million before nudging their own offer to $2.3 million. With no other takers, the property was passed in well short of the vendor’s reserve of $2.65 million. A third party reportedly showed interest after the auction concluded, but no sale had been finalised at the time of writing.
The terrace features exposed brick walls, oak floors, high ceilings, a breakfast bar and a study nook — the kind of considered renovation that typically attracts strong interest on Fitzroy Street, a road long regarded as one of the suburb’s more sought-after addresses. Buyers for Fitzroy Street terraces tend to be owner-occupiers — professionals, upsizing families and downsizers from the Eastern Suburbs — who historically compete hard at auction. This weekend, that competition simply did not materialise.
What makes the outcome particularly telling is the seller’s situation. The vendor is preparing to move overseas imminently and, once they depart Australia, they will no longer qualify as an Australian tax resident. That deadline effectively closed off the option of a protracted post-auction negotiation. With the clock running out, the decision was made to hold the property and lease it out rather than accept a price that fell short of expectations.
McGrath Surry Hills selling agent Wes Smuts noted that many transactions in the current environment are being struck before or after auction day rather than under the hammer — a sign that both buyers and sellers are seeking more certainty than the auction process can offer right now. He also observed that properties priced up to around $1.5 million are still moving under competitive conditions, while the upsizer and discretionary buyer segments are taking considerably longer.
The 97 Fitzroy Street result sits within a broader pattern of subdued auction conditions across Sydney. According to Domain, Sydney’s preliminary auction clearance rate for the weekend of 17 August came in at 53 per cent — more than 20 percentage points below the same weekend a year earlier, when it sat at 74 per cent. The week ending 23 August recorded a preliminary clearance rate of 54 per cent from 369 reported results, with 114 auctions withdrawn across the city. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties in clearance rate calculations, which means the final figure is likely to come in a few points lower once all results are tallied. Industry observers have been questioning whether auctions remain a viable sales method in the current climate, with buyers and sellers alike uncertain about where the market is heading.
The 60 per cent clearance rate is widely used as a rough benchmark separating a market that favours sellers from one that is more evenly balanced — or tilting toward buyers. Sydney has been sitting well below that line for some time now.
For locals keeping an eye on what’s happening to property values in the neighbourhood, data from PropertyValue indicates that around 125 houses sold in Surry Hills over the past 12 months, with a median sale price of $2.5 million, up 6.5 per cent annually — though vendor discounting has averaged around 6.2 per cent, and homes are taking an average of 28 days to sell. The gap between the $2.3 million bid and the $2.65 million reserve at 97 Fitzroy Street reflects that discounting dynamic in sharp relief.
For now, the Fitzroy Street terrace joins a growing cohort of properties whose owners are choosing to wait — or, in this case, rent — rather than meet the market where it currently stands.
Published 23-August-2026
