Mother’s Day weekend was chocolates or boiled lollies with a large order of not much in-between.
When it’s stand-out, it’s hot, hot and hot. If it’s slightly ordinary you’ll get more bids for ice in Siberia.
Overall there are many signs that the market has moved into “caution” mode, despite which some vendors still appear to believe their fairy godmothers will get them over the line. You’ll find them in the clouds around 20% above the rest of the world.
With caution all around, we find ourselves as the the midwives at more quiet off-market transactions than ever. Confidentiality is the word.
Then, looking at some of the weekend’s auctions, you’d see nothing but gloom:
19 Haverbrack Avenue, Malvern, 16, 000 square feet, north side, court and pool (but in our view it needs a bulldozer through it) got a vendor bid of $5.7 million, has an owner looking for well over six million and a market prepared to go, maybe, to five and a half. We’ll wait and see.
Around the corner 6 Beamsley Street also went only as far as a vendor bid ($2.7 million) and, again, no takers. No real surprise there. It’s not a house that will turn heads.
Over in genteel Hamilton Road, number 16 could also only raise a vendor bid ($3.5 million). We think the agent is still living in the past.
And then there are pockets where the boom lives on:
31 Airlie Street, South Yarra, a 30’s brick home on 4,000 square feet was quoted at $1.2 million plus and four bidders pushed it to $1.9 million.
Even in Kew (Kew!) 8 Coombs Avenue, a unique country-comes-to-the-‘burbs 70’s brick veneer in the treetops had a reserve of $1.75 million and sold for $2.1 million. Is 70’s the new retro?
In Hawthorn the results were about where they should have been when 46 Hawthorn Grove sold for $3,395,000.
Other signs of a market in turmoil?
Agents are having to work for their fees to get transactions over the line. Some are switching employers, some are considering the Paris option, some are thinking about a quiet little retail business they can turn around. Some are actually returning phone calls.
from DM, Legend
Brighton bounces?
Brighton agents are living in hope the weekend’s rebound is exactly that and not a dead cat bounce. There were 13 sales among the18 properties offered.
The value end of the market outperformed anything at median price or above: eight sales under a million and one result (16 Lorac Avenue) limping to $2 million with two bidders looking very much like they didn’t want to be there before a relieved auctioneer finally put us all out of our misery.
In a lacklustre auction at 95 Dendy Street, the property was passed in with one lonely vendor bid at $2.5 million against a reserve of $2.75 million. Ambition still rules in this busy location.
Although it was a better weekend, the list of properties which have been passed in at auctions and are still unsold is longer than is comfortable for local agents. Some reasonable buying opportunities await the well informed.
Elwood continues to perform well and none better this weekend than 45 Dickens Street, a seriously well renovated and extended brick Edwardian on large-for-Elwood 827 sq metres. The hammer fell at $3,025,000.
At the opposite end of the style spectrum, a very crisp architect-designed town residence on a mere 300 sq metres at 34A Foam Street (“featuring an external and internal five metre waterfall”) sold prior to auction for what is being claimed as a record price by a gushing agent: $2,350,000.
Further down the Bay, Black Rock and Beaumaris auctioneers must have played golf: no auctions scheduled and only a handful of private sales transacted during the week. Red Bluff Street at $1.7 million the pick of a small crop.
Hampton and Sandringham sellers had something to smile about: 11 sales from 15 offerings indicates the ongoing popularity of these very liveable suburbs.
Bentleigh’s clearance rate came back to the pack with 66% against last week’s 75% but still offers the best value for money in the Bayside area.
– from DT, Bayside Legend