Weekend auction wrap: Where the hammer fell
Few expect spring sales activity to gain much price momentum. And prices could comes under serious pressure if late listings swamp the market in the final six-week stretch home after Melbourne Cup, especially if buyers are wanting to see if prices come down further and sit on their hands for a little while to see if they do.
But Dr Andrew Wilson from Australian Property Monitors has made a big call that Sydney auction clearance rates will start to gradually track upwards.
“Growing buyer confidence and Sydney's chronic housing shortage will ensure increased buyer activity over spring,” Wilson forecasts.
He says Sydney will be Australia's most resilient housing market through the remainder of 2011, assisted, it seems, by his suggestion that the number of properties offered for auction each weekend won’t grow too significantly over the next few months reflecting some ongoing wariness from sellers.
Melbourne buyers’ agent Mal James thinks the market has moved from an overall nothing winter market to a two-speed low-stock spring one.
“During this transition it has dropped in price with a few exceptions – courtesy of the share market malaise.
“If you have an A-grade home and you are priced to market then you are selling strongly and even slightly better than a month ago," James says.
“On the other hand, if you have a home that has issues with position, land content or floor plan, then your end sale result is continuing to ease and doesn’t look like getting any better this side of Christmas.”
During spring’s first Saturday – with barely an uptick in stock levels –auction clearance rates retained their cautious winter persona.
In Sydney, the clearance rate was 54.1%, almost unchanged from the 54.8% previous weekend tally, according to Australian Property Monitors.
The Real Estate Institute of Victoria figures had a 57% clearance – up from the revised 52% in the previous weekend, the lowest clearance seen so far this year. but with results still to come from 63 properties, the final result is expected to ease slightly. There were a total of 470 auctions reported, of which 268 sold and 202 were passed in, 140 of those on a vendor’s bid.
In Ipswich Queensland investors snapped up nine apartments in Ipswich's first high-rise residential tower Aspire.
There had been 44 residential apartments and three commercial units for sale after the developer, Dore Property Corporation, was forced into receivership after only selling about half the units on Ellenborough Street, Woodend.
With 104 units plus four split-level penthouse apartments, the 15-storey building was completed in 2008. The site had been bought for $1.1 million in 2005.
There were 62 registered bidders at the Ray White Ipswich helmsman-style auction.
Estate agent Warren Ramsey secured prices between $210,000 for a one-bedroom studio and $532,500 for a three-bedroom penthouse. The buyers were mostly local.
Initial off-the-plan prices ranged between $304,000 and $1.11 million.
The weekend’s top sell was a Sargood Street, Toorak house that fetched $4.7 million. It last traded at $2,151,000 in 2005. The 1930s, five-bedroom, four-bathroom house sold though agents RT Edgar after auction. Bidding opened at $4.2 million, according to James Buyer Advocates, and with two bidders it was passed in at $4.6 million.
Melbourne had another two sales above $4 million, including a house on Nelson Road, South Melbourne at $4,215,000 and a house on Coppin Grove, Hawthorn at $4,110,000.
Sydney’s top sale was $1,995,000 for a block of four two-bedroom apartments on Dudley Street, Coogee. It sold through Nelson Dueza at Century 21 Classic. The block was bought by a trio of young investors who are going to renovate the units and lease them long term.
The REIV is expecting a pickup on volumes over the next three weeks in the lead up to the October 1 grand final pause. The are 670 auctions scheduled for the September 17 weekend, according to REIV chief executive Enzo Raimondo.
Australian Property Monitors research analyst Clinton McNabb expects about just a slight increase to 360 auction next weekend from the 350 just gone. There are about 470 auctions scheduled for the September 17 weekend.
Adelaide’s highest sale, according to APM, was a three-bedroom Beulah Park house sold through LJ Hooker Kensington agent Andrew Welch and Sam Trowse, who’d been seeking $550,000 plus. It last sold for $315,000 in 2006. It was a 1900 brick cottage on 440 square metres.
