Surfers Paradise matches Sydney and Melbourne with 70% auction clearance rate

The Ray White Surfers Paradise office maintained a 70% auction clearance rate in March, matching the recent auctions success of Sydney and Melbourne.

It was the third straight month that the office had managed a 70% clearance rate.

In addition, bidders-at-auction numbers are rising as buyers appear more willing to meet vendor expectations, says Ray White Surfers Paradise chief executive Andrew Bell.

Out of 20 properties up for auction at March auctions held last weekend, nine sold under the hammer and five sold prior to auction.

The highest price paid was $1.93 million for a four-bedroom, four-bathroom house at 9 Kootingal Street (pictured below) in Ashmore with five bidders competing.

{yoogallery src=[images/stories/2013/03/march28ashmore]}

The house has a swimming pool and tennis court on its 4,507 square metre block on the banks of the Nerang River. The 1980s property last sold in June 2006 for $2 million.

Another four-bedroom house in the same suburb on Riverbank Court on a block about a quarter of the size sold for $950,000 in July last year.

“The clearance rate shows that there is increasing competition among buyers, producing very good outcomes for vendors because many of the properties sold above reserve.”

“When you couple this with a lack of stock on the market we are seeing a very good environment for sellers through the auction process, which is proving the best of any form of sales program at present,” he says.

Bell estimates solid gains in property prices over the first three months of the year with owner occupiers, investors and lifestyle buyers all active.

“From our read of the market, prices are up between 5% and 7% through the first quarter of the year.”

This follows a 70% success rate at Ray White’s annual The Event which saw around 120 residential, prestige, industrial and commercial properties as well as land sites and even boats auctioned.

Bell also notes increasing numbers of bidders at auction.

“We’re averaging around four bidders by property, a rising percentage with most of the properties selling in excess of the reserve price,” he says.

Bell says the recovery in the market is not confined to the upper end.

“There is a good mixture from the very top right through all spheres,” he says.

Bell says there are two reasons for the recovery: low interest rates and that buyers have identified that properties are offering good value.

“The buyers have stepped up a notch to meet sellers who have had realistic expectations for some time.”

Buyers have been hard on the market in the past, he says.

The recovery in prices follows five years of what Bell calls “significant price correction”.

“When the market comes back it does tend to spike. I expect it will level off and there will be more consistent growth - interrupted by federal election.”

He also anticipates that firming interest rates could take some momentum out of the market.

Additional reporting by Charmaine Wong.