Dan Andrews looks at Melbourne having open for inspections and auctions
Dan Andrews, the Victorian premier, was asked by journalists at his Wednesday press conference on the holding of open for inspections and auctions.
There is currently a late October and late November roadmap.
Melbourne real estate will fully open with safety measures from November 23, however from October 26, if the daily average of new cases is fewer than five and there are fewer than five cases with an unknown source in the prior fortnight, agents would be allowed to hold private inspections and to hold outdoor auctions subject to gathering limits.
Here is the response to questions put by journalists at the Wednesday press conference:
Q: They can’t have an inspection, let alone an auction, when can they start to expect –
Dan Andrews: I don’t have the roadmap in front of me, but I’ll find out when we can expect to have those inspections, open houses and auctions. Looking closer to a normal, it’s not next week. It needs to be, for safety reason. When you think about it, there are many people who attend auctions. There are many people who would see themselves as there to bid. There, are then – I had a house sell in our street not long ago, prior to COVID, so it is a little while ago actually. There were a lot of people there who had no intention of buying the place, could never have had registered, but turned up to have a look. And all of a sudden you have a gathering that is way too big and way too risky, in terms of spreading this virus. I know it’s not easy, I know there are many in the real estate community and vendors and people across the state, who are all in different settings. But just like pubs, cafes and restaurants, they wouldn’t be back to normal for long. You’ve gotta find that long-term normal and then lock that in.
Q: Like pubs or cafes, restaurants, what if you could have inspections or at least people could come along and leave their details with their mobile number and their names.
Dan Andrews: Sure, let me come back to you. As I said, I haven’t got the document in front of me now. There’s a lot in it. But, I’ll get you an answer on when we think that will be able to happen. It did come back but of course the circumstance has changed.
Q: And are there any hardship exemptions on that? Can people apply, say if they are in financial dire straits, and they apply in some way, they can have a few people come over and look at the house, to sell the house?
Dan Andrew: Look, there are exemptions available to any of these rules and we have always welcomed people making their case. And there is a whole team dealing with that… On the specifics of that, I am not sure if I have had anybody come to us arguing that. But, I am more than happy to ask.