85 Sunshine Parade, Sunshine sells for $1.52 million

They bought the property at 85 Sunshine Parade for $910,000 in March.

Sydney buyers who had only seen the property half an hour before auction fought off about 10 other registered, out-of-area bidders, all of whom were in the market for a holiday home.

The sale eclipsed Sunshine's previous record sale - a four-bedroom, three-bathroom, absolute waterfront home at 3 Waterside Avenue - by more than $100,000.

McGrath Toukley's Chris Smith said he had distributed about 25 contracts on the 677 square metre, circa-1970 property during a three-week campaign.

"People were trying to buy it from the day it went on the market," Mr Smith said.

"We just said to everyone 'the owners have instructed us to sell the property so we're going to sell it at auction'."

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The family who sold the property had bought it as a knockdown-rebuild project, but later found other opportunities they considered more suitable.

"They were just looking to cover their costs of buying and selling it so they were really shocked by the result, they were speechless," Mr Smith said.

"All the interest seemed to be coming in around $1.2 million - they didn't think it would go for over $1.5 million."

The new owners are also believed to be looking at using the site for a knockdown-rebuild in an area that is "starting to get the eyes of the holiday home market".

Mr Smith said holiday home buyers were making up a large proportion of the market at present.

"It's normally an even split (holiday home buyers, retirees, downsizers and upsizers) - now it's like 90 per cent holiday home buyers," he said.

"There seems to be a fairly big influx of people in Sydney wanting to get somewhere where they can get out of Sydney but close, not go to the Gold Coast or Cairns.

"They don't seem to be wanting that at the moment - they want an hour and a half out of Sydney."

Sunshine, which is about a 10-minute drive from Morisset, has a population of about 450.

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In other auction results, Robinson's Mike Flook sold 92 Janet Street, Merewether for $2.35 million following a campaign that yielded 154 enquiries.

The three-bedroom home was marketed as a renovation or rebuild project and had a guide of $2.1 million.

Mr Flook also sold an ocean-facing, 897 square metre block at 2A Wilfred Barrett Drive, The Entrance North for $1.76 million.

In the first home buyers' market, Ray White Maitland sold a three-bedroom weatherboard and tile home at 18 Fourth Avenue, Rutherford for $527,000.

PRD Newcastle and Lake Macquarie's Ryan Houston sold a tidy, three-bedroom apartment at 7/74 Tennent Road, Mount Hutton for $687,000.

For the second week running there was a multimillion-dollar sale in Dudley, where $2.25 million was paid for a five-bedroom home at 136 Ocean Street, marketed by Belle Property's Katie Kepner.

The Newcastle and Lake Macquarie region again enjoyed one of the nation's highest clearance rates in the week ending November 14.

According to CoreLogic's preliminary results, only five of 45 auctions were passed in.