Just a short ⁠stroll from Sydney’s famous Bondi Beach, auctioneer Clarence White struggles to drum up bids for an ⁠airy three-storey home that boasts five bedrooms and an alfresco lounge – price tag, A$5.2 million (US$3.64 million).

“We know everyone’s cagey at the moment, but that’s OK … all power to those who are registered and those who take action,” the veteran auctioneer tells a small group of prospective buyers and onlookers, none of whom bids.

Failed auctions like this were once the exception in Sydney’s red-hot property market. Now, clearance rates across the country have plunged, squeezed by an end to property investment tax breaks.

The policy shift unveiled last month is the biggest in decades and seen by some as ending Australia’s obsession with property, for ‌generations the primary way to build wealth, making Sydney and Melbourne among the world’s least affordable markets.

Already, weekend auction clearance rates nationally have fallen to below 50 per cent in the month since the government announced its change, to the lowest point since the pandemic, data from property research firm Cotality showed.

“Our viewer numbers are halved, the number of bidders for properties has halved, clearance rates have gone down to about 30, 35 per cent,” said Ray White’s Avi Khan, an agent in Brisbane.