2a Collingwood Ave, Earlwood.

A red-brick house in Earlwood owned by the same family since it was built in the 1960s became hot property when it went under the hammer yesterday.

The five-bedroom house on Collingwood Ave sold for $1.675 million, $75,000 over the vendor’s reserve price.

The double-storey house piqued the interest of 80 buyer groups in the inspections leading up to the auction and a crowd of about 50 people watched the property go under the hammer.

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Ten buyers registered to bid, with four active in the auction — all families. They submitted a total 20 bids, including an opening bid of $1.4 million. The buyers were understood to be a local family upsizing.

The home came with a large backyard.

Selling agent Nicholas Arena of Ray White Petersham said house-hunters were realising it was a good time to buy.

“You can feel that the market is starting to move in the right direction,” he said.

“It’s a really good time for upsizers to buy and that’s exactly what’s happened here — the home was a blank canvas, really well built and offered (scope) for further ­improvements and modernisation.”

The property was among 283 homes to go under the hammer today, a volume consistent with previous weeks but well down on auction numbers last year and in 2017.

Some buyers were drawn to the opportunity to add value.

CoreLogic auctions analyst Kevin Brogan said many homeowners appeared to be sitting on their hands and were not yet ready to commit to selling.

“Listings numbers are usually low in winter, but they are especially low at the moment,” he said.

With stock levels shrinking in popular areas such as the inner west and eastern suburbs, Sydney auction clearance rates have been trending up in recent weeks.

Last week nearly 73 per cent of auctions produced a successful result for the sellers, while the week prior it was 71 per cent, according to CoreLogic.

Weekly clearance rates before the election were substantially lower, hovering around the 58 per cent mark for much of May and April.