Melbourne's weekend auctions end spring on weakened 67% clearance rate

Melbourne's weekend auctions end spring on weakened 67% clearance rate
Jonathan ChancellorDecember 7, 2020

Melbourne’s weekend auction market finished the spring selling season on a 67.2% clearance rate.

It was a similar result to last weekend which recorded the lowest clearance rate for spring, and for the year so far, with an initial 67.1% which was revised to 66.8% after late results.

A surge in late spring auctions numbers was impacting market activity with buyers increasingly spoiled for choice, according to Australian Property Monitors (APM).

Auctions numbers rose strongly this weekend with over 1,300 homes listed offered under the hammer in the metro area. 

"This is well ahead of last weekend’s 1,154 results and just below the 1,341 auctions conducted over the same weekend last year," APM's Andrew Wilson said.

There are around 400 of the 1,326 results yet to be advised.

The top sale was Sandy Cove, the Brighton beachfront at 38 Dawson Avenue, which (pictured below) sold for $8,525,000 through hockingstuart. Boasting 46 metres of absolute west-facing beach frontage, the 1989-built Jon Friedrich house sits on a 771 square metre block. It last sold in 2007 for $6.1 million.

Pre-auction sales were prevalent, with the REIV reporting 170 pre-sales from its larger sample of 1181 auction results.

The REIV listed the top sales amid its 65% success rate:

TOP 5 HOUSES
1. 38 Dawson Avenue, Brighton $8,525,000
2. 37 Elizabeth Street, Brighton East $4,345,000
3. 6 Chilcote Avenue, Malvern $3,760,000
4. 2 Barnsbury Court, Deepdene $3,700,000
5. 129 Richardson Street, Albert Park $3,510,000

TOP 5 BARGAIN HOUSES
1. 83 Seventh Avenue, Rosebud $240,000
2. 11 Romsey Crescent, Dallas $270,000
3. 72 Songlark Crescent, Werribee $270,000
4. 36 Chelsworth Loop, Craigieburn $330,000
5. 15 Freda Street, Broadmeadows $330,000 

TOP 5 APARTMENTS
1. 2/8 Glenview Avenue, Malvern $1,920,000
2. 4 Bosisto Street, Richmond $1,530,000
3. 105 Ormond Esplanade, Elwood $1,500,000
4. 3 Edward Street, Toorak $1,250,000
5. 1B Wordsworth Street, St Kilda $1,036,000

TOP 5 BARGAIN APARTMENTS
1. 1/44 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy $133,000
2. 9/10 Derby Street, Fawkner $228,000
3. 36 Elinda Place, reservoir $253,000
4. 5/216 Sladen Street, Cranbourne $255,000
5. 710/551 Flinders Lane, Melbourne $295,000

Source: Australian Property Monitors.

Melbourne’s inner city hosted the most number of auctions on the weekend with 220 closely followed by the inner south with 209, the inner east with 188, the west  185, the north east 165, the outer east 160, the north 109 and the south east  49.

The most popular suburb for auction listings on the weekend in metro Melbourne was Richmond in the outer east with 24 followed by Glen Waverley in the outer east and reservoir in the north east each with 22, Port Melbourne in the inner city with 21, St Kilda also in the inner city with 19, Mount Waverley in the inner east and Melbourne CBD each with 18 and Doncaster in the inner east and Brighton in the inner south each with 17 auctions scheduled this weekend.

Last weekend’s auction clearance rate of 67.1% was well below the previous weekend’s 72.1% with the local market clearly tracking backwards since the Melbourne Cup weekend holiday.

"Record numbers of auctions will continue to test a fading market through December to the Christmas break," Wilson said.

Before Saturday's result Melbourne’s four weekend average clearance rate had fallen to 72.7% well down on the previous four weekend average result of 75.4%.  

Jonathan Chancellor

Jonathan Chancellor is one of Australia's most respected property journalists, having been at the top of the game since the early 1980s. Jonathan co-founded the property industry website Property Observer and has written for national and international publications.

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