Weekend auction tipping

There's now a website, www.propertytycoon.com.au, where Melburnians can guess auction results, with no outlay. It's mostly about testing your market knowledge with a small cash prize as a sweetener.

Auction numbers will peak this weekend at 880. This is an increase of 30% from last weekend and up by a massive 50% from two weeks ago.

This is a predictable trend as most vendors don't want to run a sale campaign over the Melbourne Cup weekend. We see a similar increase in auction numbers leading up to long weekends, Easter and AFL grand final.

For tippers and buyers however these weekends often result in a softer market and better buying opportunities. This is because buyers are spread out more thinly across a larger number of competing properties.

One of the five properties featured this weekend is:

168 Napier Street, South Melbourne

Agent: Hocking Stuart - Michael Coen

Quote: $1.3 million to$1.35 million

Last sold: June 1994

Price: $300,000

Suburb median: $962,500

Five-year median growth: 9.62% 

Located close to Albert Park Lake and the South Melbourne Market, this tightly held property has not been sold for almost 20 years. A sale price on Saturday of  $1.35 million will mean the property has been growing at a rate similar to the suburb median over the last five years. This level of growth will mean the property has been growing by about 1% more per year than the Melbourne median over the same time frame.  

If you think you know what it will sell for place a tip at Property Tycoon.