Weekend auction wrap: Where the hammer fell
Many suburbs in Sydney and Melbourne have been defying the downward-trending weekend auction clearance rates. Enmore, Lilyfield and St Peters – all in Sydney’s inner west – have achieved 80 auction clearance rates of more than 80%, against the 55% Sydney success rate rate, according to Australian Property Monitors.
Abbotsford, Chadstone, Windsor, Ivanhoe East, Malvern and Albert Park are the standout performers in Melbourne, with year to date 75% success rates, according to the Real Estate Institute of Victoria. Albert Park had the country’s highest weekend sale at $6.62 million.
Sydney’s weekend auction clearance, which was the strongest since a 60% result in late February. The preliminary Australian Property Monitors result came from 353 of the 451 weekend listings, so the proof of any significant improvement in the success rate will come in the unreported final 98 results. APM notes that July’s opening weekend has just the 300 listings.
Melbourne’s success rate on the weekend, according to the REIV’s tally of 611 auctions. It takes the 2011 tally to just over 13,000 auctions and an overall 59% clearance rate. There are about 470 auctions next weekend, according to the Real Estate Institute of Victoria.
Rosebank, a 960-square-metre holding on St Vincent Place North in the Melbourne suburb of Albert Park, was the weekend’s top seller across the country. It was officially announced on the market at $6,275,000, with just the one further bidder entering the competition who happened to beat the persistent opening $4.05 million bidder. There were four bidders all up. Rosebank, with a double-fronted Italianate Victorian facade, had been in the Lay family for 52 years. It sold through Simon Gowling at Marshall White.
The holding, with two rear workers timber cottages and double-storey brick stables, had a $4.8 million unimproved capital value and a $5.3 million capital improved value, according to the latest valuation. The property requires significant modernisation. Ross Lay won nine club championships at the Albert Park Bowling Club, just opposite the house, after joining the club in 1970. His late wife, Lillian, had a flower shop in Albert Park.
The cheapest offering was also in Melbourne, and also through Marshall White. It was a 24-square-metre studio apartment on Mathoura Road in Toorak. The unit is in a 1941 Roy Grounds-designed building, Moonbria. It sold through Jason Brinkworth and James Redfern.
Sydney’s dearest weekend house price sale was in Mosman through Belle agent Tim Foote, who had initial $3.25 million plus hopes. The five-bedroom Prince Albert Street bungalow had previously traded at $2.65 million in 2006, thereby reflecting 3.8% annual growth.