The Ray White Newcastle Lake Macquarie director and sales manager told the Newcastle Herald properties were selling fast and some auctions were experiencing a high level of registrations.

He reported there were 13 bidders at the on-site auction of 16 Buchanan Street, Hamilton last Saturday. Bidding opened at $500,000 and progressed slowly until the property was finally secured for $649,000 by a phone bidder. Bidders for the three-bedroom home in need of work on a block 236 square metres in size were a mix of locals and out-of-town buyers.

In Carrington, a large four-bedroom terrace with off-street parking at 80 Rodgers Street drew seven registered bidders. Bidding opened at $640,000 before the property was secured for $776,000 by a young Sydney couple.

"If we were auctioning those same properties one year ago, we would've had less bidders," Mr Penn said.

"We could look at auctions that we had the same time of year last year and similar suburbs and we would've had a third of the bidders.

"That one in Buchanan street, to have 13 registered bidders on a little place that was in bad order, that's exceptional.

"Then the other one, in Carrington, seven registered and again sold over reserve. The same property last year would have had half the amount of bidders."

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Mr Penn observed demand for properties was being driven by a lack of listings.

"Buyer activity is really strong and the buyers are outstripping supply," he said. "There's just not enough property in the market to keep the buyers' supply up to date, so what that's meaning is days on market are really low.

"Any complaint an agent has at the moment is we need more listings because the more listings we have at the moment the more sales we'll make.

"If you're sitting around waiting and wondering when is the right time to sell, when is the market going to pick up, it's picked up."

It was a sentiment echoed by First National Newcastle City's George Rafty, who reported the busiest July and August they had experienced in terms of volume of sales since opening their office in 2016.

"We have been extremely busy with lots of activity all over the inner city suburbs and very active in Hamilton, Hamilton East, Hamilton South, Merewether," Mr Rafty said.

Their recent results include the pre-auction sale of a waterfront townhouse at 1/40 The Lane Maryville. It was marketed with a guide of $1.05 million to $1.15 million and sold for $1.2 million.

They also sold an updated three-bedroom home on nearly 700 square metres of land at 100 Gordon Avenue in Hamilton South for $1.44 million after the first open house, and recorded what is believed to be a street record sale of a four-bedroom residence at 94 Turnbull Street, Merewether within one week. It had a guide of $2 million to $2.2 million and was sold off-market for an undisclosed sum.

"The market is really humming along and I think what's driving it is all of the government incentives and the interest rates being low," Mr Rafty said.

"If you're busy between half a million and $800,000 in the market, whoever is selling, they've got to buy as well so they might be stepping up to the next bracket and that just keeps going through the whole marketplace."

PRD's Mark Kentwell, Chasse Ede and Natalie Tonks sold a block of five one-bedroom units on 1000 square metres of land at 46 Nesca Parade, The Hill to an investor before it hit the market.

Viking Realty's Louise Vico described the $1.38 million sale of a three-bedroom townhouse on the water at 1/49 Emily Street in Marks Point as "huge".

Listed with an asking price of $1.275 million, Ms Vico said it sold in two days. The property sold for $995,000 two years ago.

In Charlestown, Belle Property Charlestown sold a two-bedroom house at 21 Oceanview Parade within two weeks for $10,000 over its guide of $640,000 to $680,000.

Street Property have sold an updated three-bedroom home on a block 259 square metres in size at 46 Phoebe Street in Islington for $750,000.

In Fletcher, Mulligan Property sold a four-bedroom house with a pool at 17 Arbour Avenue in the popular Outlook Estate for $718,000.