Early bird February 2019 auction vendors securing sales

Essendon champions Terry and Chris Daniher sold a Moonee Ponds investment property for $1.18 million shortly before its scheduled weekend auction.

It sold to local first-home buyers who snapped it up on their wedding day, just five hours before they tied the knot in the Yarra Valley.

Nelson Alexander Ascot Vale agent Milo Rasinac told the Herald Sun the couple had been the keenest of the four parties who had been interested in the four-bedroom double-fronted Victorian.

The deal was sealed via the phone and emails. The unrenovated 69 Darling Street listing (above and below) had been quoted at $1.15 million to $1.25 million.

The Daniher brothers had owned the property since their early 1990s playing days when they paid for $175,000.

It was among the 929 capital city homes scheduled for auction, up on the first week in February when 536 auctions were held, according to CoreLogic.

The nation's priciest notified result was in Manly at $2.7 million for a three bedroom, two bathroom apartment (below).

The price guide had been $2.7 million for the 1990 waterfront apartment views across Little Manly Cove to North Head.

The 4/8 Addison Road offering was in a tightly-held complex of six. The nation's cheapest sale was at Brunswick where a 1960s studio apartment fetched $155,000.

The Brad Teal agent has suggested a $150,000 to $165,000 price guidance for the vacated 8/831 Park Street offering.

It last sold at $110,000 in 2008. Melbourne was the busiest weekend auction market with 352 auctions held across the city, returning a preliminary clearance rate of 53.7 percent.

"This is quite a bit lower than what we were seeing last year, when 70.7 percent of homes sold over the same week when volumes were higher (619)," CoreLogic auction analyst Kevin Brogan noted.

There were 321 Sydney homes auctioned, returning a preliminary auction clearance rate of 59.2 percent.

"Interestingly, Sydney was the best performing capital city auction market last week," he noted. Canberra returned a preliminary clearance rate of 56.3 percent, while Brisbane’s preliminary result came in at 42.6 percent.

A Teneriffe property change hands for the first time in 63 years when 10 bidders registered to buy the house at 8 Waverley Street (below).

Bidding started at $900,000 and quickly rose to $1,475,000, The Courier Mail reported.

Volumes were higher over the week across all auction markets with the exception of Adelaide where activity was down. The national auctions returned a 54.1 percent preliminary auction clearance rate, well up on the 42.8 percent final auction clearance rate last weekend, suggesting buyers had a returned from the break with a preparedness to ignore the negative commentary.

"The early flow of auction data for 2019 is showing a subtle bounce back in the clearance rate relative to the lows recorded through December last year which is a seasonal trend similar to what has been seen over previous years," Brogan said.

But Brogan anticipates the figure "will revise lower as the remaining results are collected to remain around the mid-to-low 40 percent range."

Comparing results to one year ago, volumes and clearance rates are significantly lower when 1,470 capital city homes went to auction and 63.7 percent sold.