Pouring rain but no dampened spirits for Melbourne auction tipping competition property

Pouring rain failed to dampen the spirit of bidders at 32 Christowel Street, CAMBERWELL, on Saturday. In fact to the chagrin of auctioneer James Tostiven, who did not have the luxury of an umbrella, bidders preferred to get wet rather than alter their pre-auction strategy to hold back until the business end of the auction.

For those who want to have a harmless punt, there's now a tipping website, www.propertytycoon.com.au, where punters can guess auction five results in Melbourne and Sydney, with no outlay. It's mostly about testing your market knowledge with a small cash prize as a sweetener.

One of the five Melbourne properties in round 10 of the competition this week was 32 Christowel Street, CAMBERWELL (pictured below).

In a crowd of around 80, four bidders stepped up to the plate and pushed the price over the $1.9 million reserve before being knocked down at $1.95 million. This was a great result for the vendor, who has benefited from just over 9% annual growth since buying the property in 1997 for $512,000.

In Sydney 8 Stirgess Avenue, Curl Curl (pictured below), was one of the 12% of scheduled auctions that sold prior. The lure of a beachside haven proved too much for the buyer, who offered $100,000 above the $1.6 million-plus price quote.

Selling prior to auction can mask the realities of a soft market. In many cases it means there is only one buyer interested in the property and rather than conduct an auction with only one bidder, real estate agents force the issue early and wrap up the sale.