Sydney Opera House Luxury-Home Auction Hit by Rates

A luxury home auction at the Sydney Opera House yesterday managed to sell only two of the 11 Australian homes on offer as the most aggressive round of interest rate increases by a Group of 20 member saps demand.

The auction, in a housing market the International Monetary Fund said may be overvalued by as much as 15 percent, raised A$4.11 million ($4.15 million), a fraction of the A$30 million of properties on sale. They included 10 homes in New South Wales, five of which were in Sydney, and one in Brisbane, and were valued at A$2 million to A$10 million each, according to Ray White, the biggest property broker in Australia and New Zealand.