Under cloudless blue skies, home-hunters came out in droves to bid on a variety of homes, units and townhouses.
The soft market which has seen prices on a downward slide did not deter sellers on the pre-Easter Saturday - traditionally the first big selling day of the year - with almost 100 more properties listed than the same day 12 months ago.
Clearance rates have been rising steadily in the past six weeks to just over 60 per cent, 10 per cent higher than last spring's selling season.
Numbers of first-home buyers had also not fallen as far as expected since stamp duty concessions were cut at the end of last year, said head of real estate strategy at Macquarie Group Rod Cornish.
In January, new buyers took out 2686 home loans compared with 1585 in 2011, latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show. All indications were that it was still a buyer's market and any recovery in prices was still on the horizon, property experts said.
"It's still a very tough environment for sellers," said AMP chief economist Shane Oliver.
"Prices will continue to drift lower so it's not a bad time to be looking around."
