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Now the other Olympics are out of the way, there will soon be no more excuses left to explain where the market is. It is now the start of the real estate Olympics. Top-end vendors have either been in Beijing or avoiding going to market when the world’s eyes are focused there. The real action […]

Auction results, clearance rates, statistics that mislead. The media quote agents speaking of rallies, rising clearance rates and more aggressive bidding. Not at the auctions we attended over the weekend. The REIV spruiks the line that buyers have a positive reaction to the drop in interest rates. Really? They’re representing agents, not buyers. Agents need

The weekend market was in line with the weather: frigid. Buyers had serious cases of cabin fever and vendors were so far north of the market that as a result next to nothing sold. How desperate are things out there? Desperate enough for the dummy bidders to come out from under their rocks; but they’re

This morning’s ‘Age’ reports the sale of 25 Turnbull Avenue, Toorak (at $2,650,000) as the weekend’s top transaction. No fault of the paper’s – they can only report what the agents report to them – but we can assure you that we were bidding at auctions where properties sold for a great deal more. In

The winter blues continue with most vendors still happy to hibernate until spring. Buyers? Still cautious. Still wanting to see more than what is presently on offer. And then there are some properties out there that just can?t be sold. Take, for example, 9 Barnsbury Road, Canterbury, 22 Mountview Road, Malvern and 52 Hampden Road,

We’re back ? truffle-hunting as usual, but this winter the treasures appear to be a mite more elusive. The most common question we have been asked over the last few weeks? “Has the property bubble finally burst?” We don’t believe so. There’s no real evidence to suggest a head-on crash, but with media reports of

A few months ago, Brighton East was the hotter of the Brightons. Now the tables have turned. Over the past few weeks it’s been the Eastenders who have let the side down. Last weekend? Brighton East: seven auctions, just two sales (28%). Brighton: seven out of nine (77%). Has Brighton had a reality check with

It feels like the dying hours at the wedding of the year. The bride and groom are long gone. The headaches have begun to pound among those with no homes to go to. A few of the party boys (OK, the estate agents) are still moving to music they blearily remember but the band, too,

  Saturday proved again that if you own something special, something a little unique or something that has WOW! you can get a great result even when it seems most of the market is drowning.   Hawthorn, for the second week in a row, was again the hot spot at the top end (is Toorak

It is not unusual, during the school holidays, to take a trip to Disneyland. Take the family! Have fun! But in the eternal optimists’ world of real estate, some appear to have lost their critical faculties along with their luggage. The holidays are over, people. It’s time you came home and took a look at