Sydney’s auction clearance rate has fallen below 50 per cent, with fewer than half of the houses selling under the hammer, according to CoreLogic.

Just 49 per cent of the 170 notified results were sold.

A Narrabeen house marketed as the bolthole of pop group ABBA when they toured Sydney in the 1970s was among the auction successes.

The home with a price guide of $1.6 million through Julie Bundock of Domain Residential Newport sold for $1.76 million.

It last sold for $515,000 in 1998.

The vendor John Sergeant recently told the local paper, The Manly Daily, that he became aware of the link when he moved into 15 Nioka Road and started catching taxis to work.

“All of the Manly cab drivers who picked me up reckon that, yes, this is definitely where ABBA stayed,” he said.

The house had been owned by a company of the late entertainment industry mogul Reg Grundy, who brought the singing superstars to Australia in the 1970s.

The agents described this Narrabeen home in Sydney’s north as a “coastal haven”. Photo: Domain Residential

Who knows, the Swedish pop group may have cooked in this very kitchen in 1977. Photo: Domain Residential

Over the past 20 years, the property increased in value by $1.245 million. Photo: Domain Residential

The new owners will have some room to entertain. Photo: Domain Residential

With four bedrooms, three bathrooms and three parking spaces, there’s plenty of room for a family. Photo: Domain Residential

The Narrabeen home has spectacular lake views to the ocean. Photo: Domain Residential

Fairfax Media’s Australian Property Monitors also reported a weakening Sydney clearance rate of 47.8 per cent after the initial 198 reported Saturday results, with 100 more results yet to be tabulated.

There were 1172 homes taken to auction across the nation’s capital cities, returning a preliminary national auction clearance rate of 55.8 per cent.

The volumes were down from the prior week’s 1411 auctions.

The revised national clearance rate was 52.6 per cent.

Over the same week last year, auction volumes were higher with 1627 homes returning a success rate of 69.4 per cent.

CoreLogic auction analyst Kevin Brogan noted the national average had remained within the low to mid 50 per cent range for nine consecutive weeks.

And in Sydney he said there had been three Saturday results revised to sub-50 per cent within the period.

Results across the smaller auction markets were varied, with 67.5 per cent of homes successful at auction in Canberra, while Brisbane returned a preliminary clearance rate of 36 per cent.

Canberra’s priciest result was $1,167,000 for a four bedroom home at 6 Hemmant Street, O’Connor.

It last sold at $843,000 in 2012.

It sits on a 887-square-metre block, which has an official land value of $656,000.

In Melbourne, which is Australia’s largest auction market, a preliminary auction clearance rate of 60 per cent was recorded across 560 auctions, bouncing up from 56.1 per cent across a higher 631 auctions in the prior week.

One year ago, the clearance rate was a stronger 74.9 per cent across 756 auctions.

Melbourne’s top reported weekend sale was $2.6 million at Lower Plenty.

Glenauburn, a six-bedroom home with polished timber floors, leadlight windows and doors, dark timber-panelled walls, open fireplaces, decorative cornice and ornate ceilings, sits on a 2611-square-metre block.

There are “no heritage encumbrances in place,” the selling agent Rocco Montanaro, from Morrison Kleeman advised.

The 26-28 Glenauburn Road offering was marketed as likely to fetch between $2.2 million and $2.42 million.

Jonathan Chancellor is editor at large at Property Observer