The total number of auction listings for this year stands at 33,805, almost 8000 more than the previous record-breaking 2013.

And the final tally on the number of Sydney houses sold at auction is likely to top 17,804 in 2014, representing almost $20 billion in sales."It's certainly been a massive year as far as auctions go," says the Domain Group senior economist, Dr Andrew Wilson.

"There's been strong competition in the property market and auctions are becoming a more popular form of marketing property with people watching so many reality TV shows in which they feature, and agents liking them as a more cost-effective and profitable way of selling."

The clearance rate for homes being sold at auction has also been high, peaking at 86 per cent in February this year and dipping down only as far as 70.5 per cent this month, traditionally a much quieter time. Last year in February, in comparison, it dropped to 62.2 per cent.

The highest auction result reported to Domain was the $10 million sale of 2A St Thomas Road in Bronte, a site with two large 1960s freestanding cottages in a beach-dress circle position with a pool and five garages that were advertised as 'ripe for renovation'. "It was originally my own family home," says agent Richard Wills of Richard Wills Real Estate. "I think it was a fair price."

The year's cheapest sale was a one-bedroom studio apartment in a bland five-level block at 95 Station Road, Auburn. Despite being on the top floor, having a car space and being only 950 metres to the nearby station, it went for just $156,000.

There were plenty of other auction surprises during the year. A run-down two-bedroom terrace in Redfern that had been empty for five years with an unusable kitchen was listed at $850,000. Flanked by apartment buildings, developers had tried to buy it over the years, but had failed. Finally, it became a deceased estate that was left by the family completely to charity.

It sold for $1.18 million, a figure that left even its agent, McGrath's Ben Forsyth, astonished.

Similarly, a burnt-out uninhabitable wreck of a home at 81 Frederick Street, St Peters, dumbfounded observers when it sold for $790,000 through Santos Sulfaro of Richardson & Wrench.

At the other end of the spectrum, Dover Heights hit a new suburb record in August after a clifftop designer home at 12 Douglas Parade sold for $9.5 million. Redfern also created history with the sale of a home with its historic tin shed at 105 Marriott Street for $2.73 million through Charles Touma of Belle Property.

Savvy buyers meanwhile purchased a heritage-listed two-bedroom terrace at 48 Buckingham St, Surry Hills, for $960,000 last year, styled it and painted it and applied for a development application to improve it further. They then sold it through Con Fotaras and Scott Aggett of Belle Property to an investor for the healthy sum of $1.41 million.