Expert insights Buying Melbourne hands reins to Canberra as weekend auction success rate weakens in gallop to list
Melbourne hands reins to Canberra as weekend auction success rate weakens in gallop to list
Jonathan ChancellorDecember 7, 2020
Sportsbet chief executive Cormac Barry secured the sale of his three-bedroom South Yarra offering, amid Melbourne's record auction spree ahead of the Spring racing carnival interlude.
Barry's punt of putting it up for auction on Super Saturday paid off handsomely when the double fronted Victorian-era home on Nicholson Street (above) fetched $2.4 million.
It was $175,000 over reserve after keen competition between three homebuyers.
Last traded at $1.48 million in 2011, it had come with a pre-auction price guide of $2.1 million to $2.3 million.
The listing had a celebrity connection too as fashion designer Bettina Liano had previously owned the charming Victorian home, selling it in 2007 at $1.35 million.
Melbourne had the nation's cheapest weekend offering when $237,000 secured a Brunswick West one bedroom apartment.
The top floor 38 sq m 1970s apartment at 17/558 Moreland Road had been tipped to fetch $235,000.
The unit last sold at $235,500 in 2010. It had been listed for most of the past year with $265,000 hopes, having been rented at $285 a week.
The top sale across the nation was a $7,168,000 Waverton sale in Sydney through McGrath Estate Agents.
The 30 Larkin Street five bedroom home was built on a 560 sq m block bought in 2006 for $2.2 million.
A three-storey house in Strathfield, sold for $6.6 million, some $600,000 over the reserve.
Melbourne's dearest result was a $6.4 million pre-auction sale of an Edwardian home at 659 Orrong Road, Toorak followed by another five bedroom home at 33 Grant Street, Malvern East which fetched $6,125,000.
It was a three-year old Canny-built home.
Canberra took the baton as the capital city with the strongest weekend auction clearance rate of 77.1 percent sold under the hammer.
Prices ranged between $330,000 at Belconnen and $2,235,000 at O'Connor.
The Syme Crescent five bedroom house (below) was a modern home with pool on its 960 sq m block.
The one bedroom cheapie at 231/41 Chandler Street had been tipped to fetch $359,000 plus.
The 17th floor Altitude apartment enjoyed water and mountain views.
Canberra’s clearance rate was 77.1 per cent this week across 128 auctions, up from 68.2 per cent last week across 71 auctions.
Melbourne recorded its busiest auction week on record, securing a 71.7 percent success rate from 1,983 auctions. It was down on the prior preliminary 73.3 percent tally.
Melbourne's bumper auction volume surpassed the previous peak in late November 2015 when 1,876 auctions were held, Corelogic calculated amid nascent signs of Spring listings overload.
Sydney also saw a substantially higher volume of auctions with 1,196 homes taken to auction, though recording a weakening clearance rate of 64.1 per cent.
"Sydney’s clearance rate has been consistently below 65 per cent since the first week of October," according to CoreLogic's auction commentator Kevin Brogan.
The Super Saturday saw zero auction commentary before or after from Domain's senior economist Dr Andrew Wilson, who has been with the soon to float group since October 2010.
The usually prolific Dr Wilson has not tweeted since the prior weekend when he was duly undertaking official duties at the Sydney Property Expo.
The Australian Financial Review coverage relied, unusually, just on CoreLogic. Domain's Sydney auction coverage came from a Melbourne correspondent, amid their gushing Block coverage.
This week, the combined capital cities saw the number of auctions held reach a new year-to-date high according to CoreLogic, with a total of 3,690 held, surpassing the previous 2017 high recorded over the week prior to Easter when 3,517 auctions were held.
The higher volumes returned a national auction clearance rate of 67.8 per cent.
"Historically auction volumes have peaked around late November/early December; so if this trend holds true this year, we could see new records being set for auction volumes as the Spring season concludes," Brogan suggested.
The other capital city auction markets were mixed with Brisbane recording the lowest clearance rate of just 47.1 percent.
There were 188 Brisbane auctions, virtually unchanged from 47 percent last week across 174 auctions and similar to one year ago when there were 192 auctions with a success rate of 46.6 per cent.
Brisbane's unsuccessful auctions included a classic Queenslander which was passed in at $2.05 million in Paddington.
The five bedroom Tooth Avenue home (below) came with polished timber floors, high ceilings and VJ walls.
A total of 143 Adelaide homes were taken to auction with a preliminary clearance rate of 70 per cent.
Adelaide's cheapest result was $246,000 at Para Hills.
The three bedroom 1962 brick home had last sold at $180,000 in 2008.
There were 46 Perth auctions, with 54.5 per cent clearing, rising from last week when 44 auctions were held and 40 per cent cleared.
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.