A 'cracking' start to 2024 with strong weekend property auction results
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A ‘cracking’ start to 2024 with strong weekend property auction results

It was the second-biggest start since 2008 with 1,671 homes going under the hammer

By Bronwyn Allen
Tue, Feb 6, 2024 9:32amGrey Clock 2 min

More than seven in 10 homes that went to auction on Saturday sold under the hammer, delivering a preliminary national clearance rate of 73.9 percent across the combined capital cities, according to CoreLogic data. The strongest result was seen in Canberra where 80 percent of the 75 homes auctioned were sold. Adelaide recorded a 77.6 percent clearance rate, Sydney 76.3 percent, Melbourne 71.9 percent and Brisbane 68.5 percent.

Impressive clearance rates were also recorded in regional areas. Newcastle and Lake Macquarie hosted 37 auctions with a 77.8 percent clearance. The Gold Coast saw 126 homes go to auction with a clearance of 65.3 percent. For perspective, a clearance rate of 60 percent reflects normal market conditions, with anything above this indicating strong selling conditions and high buyer demand.

Australia’s biggest agency network, Ray White, also reported a 74 percent clearance rate for the 387 auctions it conducted on Saturday. The company said the market was roaring back in 2024, with the number of buyers attending open inspections up by 24 percent since 1 January compared to the same period last year.

CoreLogic said the first major week of auctions had set a “cracking pace” for the market in terms of volume and sales success. Saturday was the second-biggest start to a new year’s auction season since CoreLogic began keeping records in 2008. A total of 1,671 homes went to auction across the capital cities. CoreLogic economist Kaytlin Ezzy said the clearance rates in Sydney and Melbourne represented “a sizeable step change compared to the end of last year.

Overall, it looks like auction markets are starting the year on a strong footing,” Ms Ezzy said. Potentially, the news of low inflation and the possibility of early rate cuts is already boosting sentiment. The next few weeks should provide further guidance on whether this strong result is simply some early-year exuberance or a trend that can persist.

Last week the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed inflation fell to 4.1 percent in December, lower than the expected forecast of 4.5 percent, representing a two-year low. Prior to the figures being released, most economists were predicting that interest rates could start to fall by September this year.

The first interest rate decision by the Reserve Bank will be announced at 2.30pm today. Following on from changes signalled last year in the way the rate decision is announced, Governor Michele Bullock will conduct a press conference to explain the board’s decision and answer questions from journalists at 3.30pm.



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Inside Jack Freeman’s world of quiet, collected luxury

Jack Freeman believes the most compelling interiors are not decorated, but collected. The FREEMAN & CO founder creates layered, personal spaces shaped by art, travel and craftsmanship.

By Partner Post
Mon, Sep 7, 2026 4 min

For Jack Freeman, a compelling interior should not look as though it was completed in a single shopping trip.

The founder and designer behind FREEMAN & CO prefers rooms that develop through art, travel, commissioned furniture and objects collected over time. It is an approach that treats the home less as a decorative project and more as an evolving portrait of its owner.

“I am a true believer in collecting versus decorating,” Freeman says.

That distinction underpins the international practice he has built across private residences, hotels, property developments, yachts and private aviation. Its projects stretch from Point Piper, Vaucluse, Circular Quay and Toorak to Mayfair, Bel Air and the Caribbean.

Although the locations and architecture vary considerably, the work is connected by a restrained design language. Natural stone, warm timbers and sculptural furniture establish the foundation, while art, bespoke lighting and individual objects give each interior its identity.

The objective is not to overwhelm a room with obvious symbols of expense. It is to create an environment that feels calm, layered and particular to the people living within it.

“The greatest luxury isn’t about excess,” Freeman says. “It’s about creating an oasis where you come home and feel immediately grounded — effortlessly chic and deeply personal.”

Collecting instead of decorating 

Decorating can imply the completion of a room: selecting the required furniture, filling the available walls and producing a coherent finished image.

Collecting is less conclusive.

A collected interior has room to change as its owners travel, discover artists, inherit pieces or reassess how they use their home. Its character comes from the relationship between objects rather than adherence to a single brand or season.

That does not mean placing unrelated pieces together without discipline. The designer must understand scale, proportion, material and provenance well enough to create a dialogue between them.

A contemporary artwork might sit beside a historic piece of furniture. A precisely detailed new interior may be interrupted by an irregular object made by hand. Smooth stone can be balanced by timber, textiles or a patinated metal surface that becomes richer with age.

The tension between those elements is part of the appeal.

For Freeman, art is not an accessory to be added once the furniture plan is complete. It forms part of the architecture and atmosphere of the room from the beginning.

Lighting is considered in the same way. Beyond its practical purpose, a bespoke fitting can operate as a suspended sculpture, changing both the room’s composition and the way its materials are experienced after dark.

Park Residences Penthouse, Cremorne

A design perspective shaped by travel 

International travel plays a significant role in Freeman’s creative process.

Design fairs such as PAD Paris and Salone del Mobile in Milan provide opportunities to encounter emerging designers, established galleries, new materials and collectible furniture away from the filter of social media.

More spontaneous discoveries can prove equally important.

“Sometimes it’s the simple things,” Freeman says. “That piece found on a shopping trip with a client in Paris, stumbling across an artisan’s workshop, or a special memory that forms the narrative of the story.”

Objects selected during travel bring more than visual interest into a home. They carry an association with a place, maker or experience, giving the client a connection that cannot be reproduced by ordering an entire interior from a catalogue.

Freeman’s influences are international, but his projects are not conceived as replicas of Parisian, Milanese or Californian style. Each commission responds to its architecture, setting, natural light and the daily lives of its occupants.

A waterfront Sydney residence demands a different treatment from a Mayfair townhouse. A Caribbean estate shaped by brutalist architecture and reflecting pools calls for another response again.

The designer’s role is to absorb those references without allowing them to overwhelm the individual qualities of the property.

Designing the complete experience 

FREEMAN & CO extends beyond conventional interior decoration.

The practice’s stated services include interior design and architecture, project management, property acquisition, development advice, concept design, documentation, furniture and lighting design, procurement and art curation.

That breadth allows the team to become involved before a room’s dimensions and finishes are fixed.

Early participation can be important at the top end of the residential market, where architecture, landscape, interiors, technology and art must operate as one environment. Decisions about ceiling heights, wall dimensions, sightlines and lighting can directly affect where art is installed or how custom furniture is proportioned.

The practice can then carry those decisions through to procurement and final installation, maintaining the design narrative as a project moves between architects, builders, specialist craftspeople, dealers and suppliers.

Its residential portfolio includes a South Coast retreat conceived as an escape from urban life, a Caribbean estate with reflecting pools, an East Coast-inspired Palm Beach residence and a Mayfair townhouse organised around an expressive drawing room.

The studio also says it has worked on highly tailored Sydney residences with values exceeding $100 million, although the private nature of such commissions means individual addresses and clients are not always disclosed.

Park Residences Penthouse, Cremorne

A home that can keep changing 

The risk in creating a perfectly resolved interior is that it can become too static — a composition that looks exceptional in photographs but leaves little room for life.

Freeman sees the home as something that should evolve with its owners.

“I love the evolution of design,” he says. “We are talking about people’s lives, and as they evolve, so too should their private sanctuaries.”

That evolution might involve adding art, reupholstering a significant piece, adapting rooms as a family changes or making space for objects gathered through future travels.

The original design needs to be strong enough to accommodate those layers.

This may be the clearest expression of Freeman’s approach to luxury. It is not simply access to rare stone, collectible furniture or commissioned craftsmanship. It is the creation of a personal environment whose meaning deepens rather than diminishes with time.

Fact box 

  • Designer: Jack Freeman
  • Role: Founder and managing director
  • Practice: FREEMAN & CO
  • Base: Australia, with international projects
  • Project locations named by the practice: Point Piper, Vaucluse, Circular Quay, Toorak, Palm Beach, the NSW South Coast, Mayfair, Bel Air and the Caribbean
  • Sectors: Private residences, hotels, residential developments, private aviation and superyachts
  • Services: Interior design and architecture, property development, project management, property acquisition, documentation, furniture and lighting design, FF&E procurement, interior dressing and art curation
  • Design philosophy: Collected, personal interiors shaped by art, craftsmanship, travel and enduring materials
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