Sydney's 67% pips Melbourne's 66% super Saturday success, but tardy agents spoil the rally credibility
Melbourne's super Saturday auction tally, albeit subject to revision from many unreported results, was a healthy 66%, and the fifth week the clearance rate sat at 60% or higher.
The preliminary result came from both the 986 results tabulated by the Real Estate Institute of Victoria on Saturday evening and the 1,053 results tabulated by Sunday evening. The final total will be closer to the 1,180 auctions that were scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.
Sydney didn't quite have the same activity by comparison with 524 listings, according to Australian Property Monitors, which reported a preminary 67% success rate from its initial 337 result tabulation.
Residex collected 88% of all auction results across Sydney and put the clearance rate result at 60%. The REINSW tabulation of the week's clearance rate, including Saturday, across NSW was 62%.
While the headline results in both capital city are hard to knock, the unreported results leave the door open for the sceptics of the rally. The extraordinary media attention - and subsequent buyer/seller sentiment - that follow the occasional super Saturday hoopla require estate agencies and data organisations to beef up their data collection beyond normal so the public's brief attention gets the truest of market indicators.
Given typical weekly revisions, Property Observer expects the final results will dip, but still sit above the 60% rate, which is viewed as commendable especially given where clearance rates were last spring.
It was 50% in Melbourne on the same weekend last year and 55 % in Sydney.
Melbourne's sales included 13 Wahroongaa Crescent, Murrumbeena, where 200 watched as competition among three bidders set a $2,115,500 suburb record through Hockingstuart.
Individual agency performances were strong across Melbourne, with Fletchers tweeting an 82% auction success rate. Marshall White tweeted its result as 80% with $70 million in sales.
One big result was at Brunswick West where 2 Duggan Street fetched $615,000 when four bidders went way beyond the $520,000 upper price guide estimate. Brunswick ranks among the most economical inner-city suburbs according to a recent survey.
Among listings passed in was the Montague Street, South Melbourne, ugly duckling challenge house featured in the recent television series of The Block.
Listed with $1.1 million-plus hopes, it was passed in on a $1,025,000 vendor bid after a $1 million opening offer when auctioned by Kent Morgan at Frank Gordon Port Melbourne .
Melbourne's highest reported result was 24 Dean Street in Kew, which fetched $3.92 million with just the two bidders, with James Buyer Advocates suggesting a higher $4.1 million post-auction of a Port Melbourne townhouse.
Last weekend there was a 60% clearance rate from about 750 Melbourne auctions.
Despite the 60%-plus success pattern, Blackburn auctioneer Sam Inan warned "more than ever agents need to be salespeople."
"Vendor management is only one half of the equation," he said of the current rally.
The 1,180 auctions on one weekend ranks as Melbourne's highest since December 2010.
The record occured in March 2008 when 1,351 auctions were held.
Of the 22 weekends over the past decade with greater than 1,000 auctions, the clearance rate has varied from 85% in March 2010 to 45% in December 2003, according to the REIV.
Sydney didn't quite have the same activity by comparison this weekend, with APM's senior economist Andrew Wilson suggesting the salient difference in the overall listing numbers between Melbourne and Sydney was Melbourne's upper end of the market was more inclined to go to auction.
Sydney's highest sale was $4,225,000 in Killara through McGrath.
Across Sydney Cooley Auctions clearance rate was 57% selling 33 of the 58 from different agencies.
The McGrath agency secured 80 sales from its 134 offerings, reflecting a 60% clearance rate. A very high occurance of pre-sales was evident at McGrath, with 48 of the 80 sales secured pre-auction. And of the 48 pre-sales some 20 price results were kept confidential.
Sydney auctioneer Tom Panos secured eight sales from his 10 auctions, with two exceding their reserves by over $200,000.
Panos tweeted there was a record price when a Californian bungalow on about 1,000 square metres at Marrickville at $1,775,000. The riverfront reserve property last sold at $1.35 million in 2009 and was listed with $1.4 million-plus hopes through Michael Harris at Raine & Horne. There were 12 registrations. Property Observer reckons the suburb record is higher at $2.25 million for a Spanish Mission house on Livingstone Road, but it was a Thornley Street riverfront record.
APM is expecting one more big Saturday in Sydney this year, with 500-plus auctions scheduled for November 10.
The REIV Melbourne map (below) shows the clearance rate in suburbs that have had 20 or more 2012 auctions before this weekend.
There have been 20,431 Melbourne auctions this year, with a clearance rate of 61%, compared with 60% from 24,541 auctions last year.
Clearance rates above the Melbourne-wide clearance rate for 2012 are in blue, and in orange if they are below the Melbourne wide clearance rate.
Source REIV
According to the REIV, last year 24% of Melbourne sales were by auction down on the year before when it was 28% through auction sales.
Sydney vendors secured 14% of 2011 property sales through auction, according to APM.
RP Data says there have only been six other occasions since early 2008 where the number of scheduled auctions has been as high nationally.