Hi,
The auction clearance rate for the second week in a row achieved in the 70%’s but the positive news is that it was on a higher number of auctions. 480 auctions were reported to the REIV over the weekend resulting in a clearance rate of 71%. 262 properties sold at auction, 79 before auction and there were an additional 158 private sales.
Whilst there seems to be an improvement in sentiment in the property market, the news headlines last week were abuzz with two properties that had sold in St Georges Road, Toorak which both had broken the previous Victorian house price record. 17 St Georges Road, Toorak, an unrenovated house with a heritage overlay set on a battle axe block of land 7,800 sqm is currently under offer for close to $75m. Up the road at 29-31 St Georges Road, I was privileged to represent the buyer in purchasing what we classed to be ‘the best block of land in the state’. The ‘Ghost House’ as it has been called for many years, is a derilict house that Hoyts boss Leon Fink started building before the recession hit in the 1990’s where he sold it unfinished and the property has not been touched ever since. The land, which is almost 7,200 sqm with no heritage overlay, regular shaped, on the premium side of the street and was an extremely rare proposition. Many properties within this location have a heritage overlay and there are only a handful of this size. We successfully bought the property (under competition from another buyer) for just a tad over $80m.
Putting these two sales aside, there definitely feels like there has been a positive shift in the market which is good news heading into Spring. Again, the open for inspections we attended were crawling with buyers and the clearance rate appears to be slowly climbing back up. The sentiment is suggesting we should have an active spring from both buyers and sellers and property prices should hold firm, some are even suggesting that we may have already hit the bottom of the market.
2/44 Faversham Road, Canterbury went under the hammer on the weekend and is a three bedroom, two bathroom, two car (double garage) unrenovated townhouse on 502 sqm of land was a very competitive auction. The property was first quoted for $1.12m to $1.22m and then the range lifted to $1.25m to $1.35m due to the high interest in the property. Bidding started at $1.3m and got to $1.65m in less than a minute. 4 bidders all up (with many did not even get their hand up) with the successful bidder jumping in at $1.8m and buying the property at just over $1.9m.
Have a great week.
Kim Easterbrook
