Market Comment
Melbourne
3rd March 2014
The autumn selling season commenced over the weekend producing a clearance rate of 74 per cent on 1,094 auctions, with 812 selling and 282 being passed in, 154 of those on a vendor bid. In addition to the weekend auctions there were 402 private sales.
Approximately 2,400 homes have sold at auction so far this year, compared to 1,800 for the same time last year. With multiple bidders at auctions, and high clearance rates above 70% for February shows that buyers believe this is a good time to purchase property, despite some negativity in the overall economy. The Reserve Bank will meet this week for the second time this year, to determine interest rate settings for the coming month. While interest rates have been on hold since last August, when they reached an historical low of 2.5%, mortgage interest rates have been falling as banks compete for market share in a positive environment for home buyer activity. This sentiment was reflected in Melbourne as all auctions attended by Elite over the weekend were well attended, with multiple bidders, and some aggressive bidding taking place. See below for more details on the auctions we attended.
