Auctions were back into full swing on the weekend with 823 auctions reported which was the highest number of auctions we have seen this year.  Of those, 554 sold at auction, 151 sold before auction and 118 passed in.  There were an additional 300 private sales.  In comparison, this time last year there were 1,138 auctions with a clearance rate of 80%.

Auctions are now allowed to be conducted at the property with no limit on the amount of people attending.  It was pleasing to see masks were worn by many, even when social distancing was achievable.

The gap between a property’s advertised price and sale price is broadening with many examples over the weekend of the sale result far exceeding the advertised price.  In most of the cases, this is not due to a high vendor’s reserve but rather buyer competition pushing the price to these levels.

The auction of 27 Margaret Street, Carnegie was competitive with multiple bidders trying to secure this older style family home in need of some cosmetic updating on 610 sqm of land.  The first bid of $1,650,000 put the property on the market but it did not stop there.  There were five bidders over $1,700,000 with the property selling for $1,781,000.

The inner northern suburbs has been achieving some strong results with 55 Union Street, Brunswick being no exception.  This two bedroom, one bathroom, single fronted Victorian home on 232 sqm in need of renovating sold $135,000 above the reserve for $1,075,000.

Although we are seeing a number of runaway results, there are still a number of properties that are selling exactly where the comparable sales demonstrate the value. There is also the odd property that is selling under what we thought it would achieve at auction.  This means whilst there are many buyers in the market, some are still a little cautious of the price they are paying for property.  In addition, there are some buyers who are waiting on their bank pre-approval due to long delays with the banks.  Other buyers are just monitoring (sitting back) and watching the market just to see where it is at before they have the confidence to buy.

Selling agents have been reporting a substantial increase in vendors requesting market appraisals which means we should start seeing an increase in properties coming onto the market over the next month or so.

Have a wonderful week.

Kim Easterbrook