Ralph Carr fails in Hawthorn amid strengthening weekend auction success rates
The Melbourne sports star manager Ralph Carr’s Hawthorn trophy home was passed in at its private weekend auction.
Carr was seeking $10 million plus for the five-bedroom Victorian home on Shakespeare Grove (above and below) through Abercromby's agent Jock Langley.
The nation's priciest weekend auction offering had actually been initially listed with $12 million plus expectations during the auction selling season.
No bidding details have emerged but Langley told The Herald Sun that buying interest had come from local, national and expatriate buyers especially from Hong Kong.
Carr had paid $7.55 million for the 1318 sqm property in 2013.
With just three Saturdays before the spring selling season kicks off, Melbourne returned an improved initial auction clearance rate of 73.2 per cent, up on last week’s final clearance rate of 70.9 per cent as volumes remained steady across the city at 500 auctions.
Last year the Melbourne clearance rate was 58 per cent from 721 auctions.
Melbourne's top sale was at Malvern where $3.82 million was paid for 19 Chesterfield Avenue (below) which was marketed by RT Edgar as suitable to "renovated, rebuild or redevelop."
There were five bidders after the $3.5 million opening bid with further bidding after it had been declared on the market at $3.66 million.
Melbourne buyers agent Mal James noted the Melbourne prestige market had a "buzz about, admittedly on very low stock and admittedly it’s early days."
He detected the positivity of June had "trickled" into August.
But James advised the market was "not on a rise - it's just that right now the falling seems to have eased and buyer, sellers and agents seem to have a sense of relief."
It might only be temporary, he warned.
Saturday saw 303 auctions in Sydney, with the priciest listing failing to find a buyer at Bellevue Hill (below).
The 57 Bundarra Road property was passed in at $6.5 million on a vendor bid by agent Ben Collier who had given a $6.5 million price guide.
There had been just one bidder who offered $6 million for the five bedroom, four bathroom house.
There were 365 homes auctioned across Sydney during week, slightly lower than the 386 auctions held in the prior week.
The lower Sydney volumes returned a preliminary auction clearance rate of 81.2 per cent well up on the 72 per cent final clearance last week.
This time last year there were 458 auctions with a much lower clearance rate of 53.8 per cent.
Although emerging in early 2019, Sydney's strengthening auction clearance rate really gained momentum just after the May federal election.
Sydney's top sale was when 21 Wakeford Road, Strathfield (below) fetched $5,686,000.
Set at one of the highest vantage points in Strathfield, the custom-built home offered 640 sqm of internal living space over its three levels.
Canberra returned a preliminary auction clearance rate of 63.8 per cent, making it the best performing of the smaller auction markets,
Adelaide followed next with 58.6 per cent of homes selling, while Brisbane and Perth both returned clearance rates below 40 per cent.
A $2,250,000 sale was achieved at The Gap in Brisbane when a modern four bedroom home with city views (below) was sold.
Ray White agent Angela Mastrapostolos sold 26 Moyry Street with four active bidders.
“The buyers were a local family from Ashgrove who wanted a bigger yard for their kids - and they had stiff competition with groups coming back for third, fourth and fifth inspections," Ms Mastrapostolos said.
The house had 412 sqm internal space along with 118 sqm of balconies.
There were 1,107 capital city homes taken to auction, unchanged from last week when final results saw 1,108 auctions held.
The steady week-on-week activity returned a preliminary auction clearance rate just at 70.4 per cent, coming in higher than last week’s preliminary figure of 68.3 per cent, which later revised down to 66.4 per cent at final figures.
CoreLogic auction analyst Kevin Brogan noted the strengthening results over recent week was "mostly attributed to Melbourne and Sydney," where both cities have consistently reported clearances rates above 70 per cent over the past few weeks.
"The consistent trend where final clearance rates hold above the 70 per cent mark imply the market is responding to the stimulus of lower mortgage rates, improved sentiment following the federal election and lower serviceability tests for borrowers, as well as low advertised stock levels," Brogan said.
The Ray White Group, which had 188 scheduled auctions across Australia on Saturday saw an average of four registered bidders per auction and three active bidders.
Across NSW there were six registered bidders per auction.
"You can feel the positivity on the ground and you get the sense the tide is really beginning to turn," Ray White NSW auctioneer Jason Andrew said.
Melbourne had the nation's cheapest sale which was $232,500 was paid in Footscray through Meallin Real Estate.
The one bedroom 4/3 Gordon Street unit offering had been listed with $200,000 to $220,000 price guidance.
It last sold at $41,000 in 1988.