Sydney property surges as prices soar Sydney's property market heads into spring in the best shape in years, with RP Data releasing figures on Monday showing 5.4 per cent growth in the past three months. Another sign of strength in the Sydney market was the sell-out of the first 159 apartments at Barangaroo at Saturday's early morning launch. Even the four-bedroom penthouse sold, which was bought by an Australian expat living in Geneva for $10.5 million. Linette and Luis Sardinha have bought 3 apartments at Barangaroo. The total value of apartment sales at Barangaroo on Saturday exceeded $300 million. RP Data said that Sydney was the best performing city in Australia. It is also the most expensive, with the analyst's figures showing a median dwelling value (houses and apartments combined) of $587,000. RP Data said Sydney home values have now grown 7 per cent in the past year. The city is now set to record growth of about 10 per cent for the year. Andrew Richardson, property developer, bought two apartments. The RP Data announcement follows a weekend which saw Sydney record a weekend auction clearance rate of 84 per cent, which was the highest of the year and one of the highest clearance rates ever recorded for Sydney. The strong result came despite there being 545 auctions scheduled, which made it the second-biggest auction day of the year. Listings were up by about 200 on the same weekend last year, partly due to next week's election encouraging sellers to bring their auctions forward. "Buyers continue to pounce on properties at auction with Saturday's super result being achieved despite a surge in auction listings," the senior economist at Australian Property Monitors, Dr Andrew Wilson, said. 13 Cottenham Avenue, Kensington, which sold for $1.92 million on Saturday. Interestingly, despite the exceptionally strong auction market - Sydney has recorded weekend clearance rates above 80 per cent for seven of the past eight weeks - the RP Data figures show Sydney's rate of price growth slipped over August. The RP analysis, which always comes on the first day of the month before all of the results are in, shows just 0.6 per cent growth for the month. Australian Property Monitors data shows that Sydney auction listings are well up on last year. But RP Data still acknowledges that Australia-wide, the capital-city growth of 4 per cent is the highest rate of capital gain since the three months ending April 2010. "While the recent surge in dwelling values has caused some renewed debate about an Australian housing bubble, it is important to remember that the average annual capital gain over the past decade has been just 4.3 per cent across the combined capital cities," RP Data Research Director Tim Lawless said. RP Data said Melbourne's growth was 0.2 per cent over August, despite a strong auction market there. According to Mr Lawless, the most significant turnaround in market conditions can be found in Brisbane where the monthly rate of growth jumped to 1.5 per cent. "Brisbane's housing market has been underperforming since the onset of the GFC with home values still almost 10 per cent lower than their previous peak which was back in November 2009," he said.