Lenny Hayes' Brighton home sold amid pre-Christmas auction rush

The retired St Kilda champion Lenny Hayes sold his Brighton home at weekend auction, amid the bumper pre-Christmas auction rush where buyers lapped up the offerings.

Next Saturday sees record volumes for the near-final Saturday before Christmas, though at least one Sydney vendor will be trying their luck on December 24, Christmas Eve.  

Hayes’ three-bedroom house fetched $2.901 million as five bidders competed for the 1920s offering that last sold at $2.25 million in 2010.

His former teammate Nick Riewoldt was spotted by Domain among the crowd who watched the property soar $200,000 above reserve through Kay & Burton agent Michael Armstrong.

It was commonly viewed as a knock down on its 700 sq m block overlooking Elsternwick Park.

Hayes returned home to Sydney to join Greater Western Sydney as an assistant coach last year.

Melbourne's top sale was $5.1 million at 13 St Vincent Place, Albert Park. The five bedroom 1870s Belgrave Terrace fetched $600,000 above reserve price at its Marshall White auction.

It last sold at $900,000 in 1996.

The top sale across Australia was $5.6 million at Russell Lea in Sydney's inner west.

The waterfront reserve home was offered for the first time in 50 years, selling agent Adrian Sereni from Warwick Williams Real Estate said.

A two bedroom Thomastown villa in Melbourne's northern suburb was the nation's cheapest with Ray White securing $262,750.

The single storey unit with courtyard and covered carport last sold at $32,750 in 1982.

The block's previous highest sale was $250,000 in 2009 and its most recent was $240,000 in 2015.

”Auction activity does not appear to be slowing through the festive period, with auction numbers reaching the highest level since March earlier this year," CoreLogic's Kevin Brogan noted.

There were 3,411 auctions held, returning a preliminary clearance rate of 74.6 per cent, up from last week’s 72.3 per cent.

It sits substantially higher than the equivalent period last year when it dipped during December to 58 per cent.

"The combined capitals clearance rate has been tracking above 70 per cent consistently over the past 20 weeks, with the clearance rate has been higher than 75 per cent over eleven of the past twenty week’s," Kevin Brogan noted.

The last time the combined capital city clearance rate was tracking over 70 per cent over the given period was in 2009.

Across Australia’s two largest markets in Sydney and Melbourne, clearance rates rose this week, with preliminary results showing 77.4 per cent and 80.2 per cent respectively.

Melbourne's preliminary auction clearance rate of 80.2 per cent came from the 1,683 auctions compared with the week prior when the final clearance rate tally was recorded at 77.3 per cent across 1,416 auctions.

"This time last year, 1,572 properties were taken to auction across Melbourne and a clearance rate of 64.9 per cent was recorded," he noted.

The busiest Melbourne sub-regions this week were Melbourne’s Inner region and the Inner South region, where 337 and 214 auctions were held respectively.

Sydney’s preliminary clearance rate this week was 77.4 per cent across 922 auction results. There were a total of 1,157 auctions held across the city.

"This is higher than the corresponding week last year, when 891 auctions were held across Sydney and a clearance rate of 54.7 per cent was recorded."

North Sydney and Hornsby hosted the most auctions of any Sydney sub-region this week, with 177 properties taken to auction. 

There were 203 Brisbane auctions with a preliminary clearance rate of 48.1 per cent, higher than the 42.7 per cent recorded last week across 204 auctions, and also higher than one year ago when there were 180 auctions with a success rate of 41.9 per cent.

Adelaide recorded a clearance rate of 66 per cent across 151 auctions.

Perth’s preliminary clearance rate sat at 26 per cent.

Canberra’s preliminary auction clearance rate of 64.9 per cent this week is higher than last week, when the final auction clearance rate was 60.6 per cent and also higher than the 48.6 per cent recorded last year. 

Next Saturday, Melbourne will host more than 1000 auctions, which will be the highest final weekend offering for the city on record.

Domain's senior economist Dr Andrew Wilson says Sydney will host well over 600 auctions next Saturday, which is also the highest final weekend offering for the city on record.

The only known December 24 auction is at Leumeah.