Sydney and Melbourne continue to lead the country with another strong week of auction clearance results. After last weeks solid result, Sydney again leads the nation with a preliminary 78.5% clearance rate. While Melbourne continues to improve and finished on higher volumes than Sydney 74%.
As sellers continue to sit and wait for spring, demand appears to be on the rise headed into the busiest time of the year for real estate sales.
Justin Nickerson (Gold Coast)
Justin Nickerson has found that while there is demand around at the moment, many properties are getting bought early on in the process.
“We found last weekend that a number of the properties are sold prior to auction, which is kind of an ongoing theme all throughout this year.”
“We usually find that when the market is a little bit uncertain – which is probably what we have at the moment – that that’s a reflection on how sellers and agents don’t want to risk things.”
“It’s a little bit of a case by case basis at the moment, everyone’s got a different opinion on how the market is going and how it’s going to go.”
Luke Banitsiotis (Victoria)
While it was a quiet weekend in terms of sales volumes, on a personal note, Luke saw some strong results on premium properties.
“We had one away quite comfortably and ended up being $170,000 over reserve.
“It was an A-grade location, walking distance to the train station. That type of location usually fairs pretty well. It was a 4-bedroom 2 baths family home that everyone wants.
“I guess now there is more confidence. And there is that lack of stock, it’s probably pushing the A-graders even more.”
“Any other stimulus is going to help push the market along – I think all the banks now are predicting modest price rises over the next 12 months. I think the market has already hit the bottom, and it’s now entering the recovery phase.”
AJ Coleman (South Australia)
It was a quiet weekend for AJ Coleman.
“Last weekend was one of the quietest weekends that I’ve had within the industry, and the number was quite low, and a lot of the other freelance auctioneers or independent auctioneers are overseas at the moment and taking their time off.
“We had a wonderful result on Friday in a suburb that is full of character homes. This one was a reproduction and a character facade for a modern internal. We had a reserve at $750,000, which… the agent’s feedback was, it was ambitious. And we had six registered bidders, and sold over $806,000 which blew everybody away.”
“Now is a great time to sell. So, if you’ve got your three-week marketing campaign, fourth-week auction, for an end of August auction, when the stock is tight, is a good thing, because you’re more likely to get a better price.
“But come spring, everybody comes on the market at the same time. Yes, the buyers will come out and start making their decisions, but there’ll be a lot more properties to choose from.
“So, what we find in the journey of a buyer is, over time, their attitude changes. So, when they first come into the market, “If I don’t get it, I don’t get it…”
Alec Brown (ACT)
Despite more low volumes, Alec is feeling confident about what the next few months might have in store for the ACT.
“We had over 10 auctions for the week with a total clearance of 80%. Certainly much stronger than others reported with 50% clearance rates.
What’s really interesting is just seeing the bidding numbers improve. Going back to the start of the year, when you looked at the ACT average dropping down to 1.7-1.8 average registered bidders online, we’ve been seeing a lot of our auctions with 4-5 or more bidders.
“It just feels like there is more competition out there, and our agency is using that competition to some really good results, at the end of the day.”
“I have no doubt that the volumes will increase. I think with it coupled with good consumer confidence if we can have a really strong selling season throughout those spring and early summer months, and that will transfer to a pretty strong start for 2020, the calendar year.
Alec also says that the APRA changes are starting to have an impact on what buyers can afford.
If your buyers have had pre-approval prior it’s worthwhile getting it re-checked.
“A lot of people are realising are realising that now with pre-approval actually extends a little bit beyond what we were thinking, and it’s just giving them more capacity to define the home of their dreams.”
Stu Benson (Sydney)
Over the weekend, Stu saw some strong bidders at auction with some results that really highlighted the power of the auction process.
“Prior to the weekend 3 of my 6 scheduled auctions sold. Which I think was down to a quality stock and a buyer wanting to put their offers on the table to stop the auctions and to make sure that they were buying these things without the risk of losing them on auction day.
“The pre-auction offers were substantial, and ones that the owners could not decline – understandably. One of them, which was held on Sunday had one of the buyers going $661,000 over the reserve.”
“Given the numbers that we’re seeing in open homes, and the numbers of registered bidders that we are seeing, there is an appetite. I really don’t think we could over-saturate the market at this point. We simply do not have enough listings.
David Holmes (Queensland)
It was also a quiet weekend in Queensland for David, who had to work hard to get the bidders to come out early on.
“All of them were hard-fought, to be honest.
“The first bid was very much a challenge at each of the auctions.
“And then the two that we passed in, both of those actually sold later on that night, so it was still a very good result for the auction process.
“Both of them had to drop the reserve, in order to get the deal done.
“It’s certainly looking better for spring, we are getting a lot more auctions coming in now, which is good. So, I think the volume is in for end of August, early September is looking really good.”
Gavin Croft (Sydney)
In Gavin Croft’s patch, things are getting a little more ‘aggressive’ which is something he hasn’t seen for some time.
“The obvious difference we are now seeing at Sydney’s coalface is the change in behaviour of buyers at auction. Buyers are now turning up on the day, seeing a property for the first time and bidding and buying.
“This hasn’t been common practice for some time where it has previously been a very measured, considered and composed approach to their real estate decisions.”
“Overall BresicWhitney had eight auctions this week, six sold, giving a weekly auction clearance rate of 75% with an average of six registered bidders per auction.”
“YTD BW have conducted 312 auctions with 244 selling on or before auction day giving a YTD clearance of 78%.”
