TG

For a couple of hours on Saturday – long enough to make it into Sunday’s papers – the REIV’s website was reporting the highest price paid at auction was $7,285,000 for a four-bedroom house in (drumroll) Ashwood! Ashwood? It seems a decimal point’s slip was showing. In fact, in what the REIV was touting as […]

Last weekend, according to the REIV, “… was one of the strongest auction weekends this year…”. They reported 707 auctions and a clearance rate of 83% Wait a day and Australian Property Monitors reports that the market is losing steam, Melbourne properties sold were down 43% and a clearance rate of 73.7% No wonder the

The top end is another country. In some places, it’s another planet. $722/sq ft in Toorak? Would you like a Brooklyn Bridge with that? But it happened. 10 Irving Road sold for $3,575,000 ? and it’s on the wrong side of the street. When this year left harbour, no-one would have expected to see even

The law of gravity has been repealed, what goes up stays there and it’s 120 days to Christmas. OK, it’s Melbourne in Spring. We, as advocates, spend a lot of time clenching our fists and squeezing our eyes closed and willing, willing , willing a crack to open in the market and for prices to

What’s happening? Without a lot of warning, the favoured few are kicking the ball out on the full. Geelong, St Kilda, real estate. The certanties are suddenly less certain, the confidence evaporating. How can we tell? Those vendors whose expectations have moved higher than the market are lonely as shags on rocks. The lemons are

The stock market has got up off its knees and is bolting Usainly. Melbourne house prices are taking off after them. Which raises an ugly question: are we bubbling again? Are we heading toward another almighty pop? Look at the fundamentals (does anyone still pay any attention to incomes, jobs, profits?) and there seems no

The weekend’s news from the very top end? There was none – at least none north of Brighton. And what action there was lacked the passion of previous weeks. But clearance rates are still soaring? Yes. Sure. Providing you include houses which were passed in (often with no sign of a bid) then sold later

Who do you think can give you the most accurate estimate of what a house will sell for at auction? An estate agent or a buyers’ advocate? No prizes for choosing the advocate, but why? Why are so many agents so wrong so often? Why can we, weeks ahead of an auction, so often predict

This kitchen is hot. Especially at the top end there’s still too little to choose from, but when quality does raise its head (forgive this) it goes like hot cakes. If you were looking for evidence of the strength of the market, you could have spent an instructional half hour at 49 Urquhart Street, Hawthorn

Underquoting. It’s epidemic. It is cheating and it hurts buyers, sellers and the reputation of the industry. In the words of the REIV: “The commonly held view is that a 10 to 15 per cent margin of error is reasonable given that the market is so volatile . . . if there are a string