The Top End is proving to be market which is impervious to anything it doesn’t want to hear. Interest rates up? Not a blip. Kevin 07? G’day Kev.
Some evidence (as if you needed it):
13 Moorakyne Avenue, Malvern ? a good north-facing 2-storey 4-bedroom family home. Three bidders took it to $4.625 million against a $4 million reserve.
(11 Moorakyne, a very similar property, sold only three months ago for $4 million which suggests the market has moved over 15% in just a couple of months ?how long can this go on?)
What may prove to be Noember’s stand-out result is 8 Stanley Street, South Yarra. Single-fronted weatherboard, south facing, ?C Grade? address. On the market at $1.3 million and sold for an astonishing $1.7 million, a cool $400,000 over the reserve for a weatherboard with seven bidders ready to go above and beyond the reserve. The final bidder jumped what had been $5,000 increments with a knockout $65,000. More money than sense? Signs of a panicked public?
But the sky was not the limit all over.
7 Avalon Road, Armadale, expecting $4 million, was passed in at $3.6 million but sold immediately afterward for $4 million.
19 Airlie Avenue, Prahran, passed in with two bidders at $1.55 million sold immediately afterward for its $1.6 million reserve. The word is that there was a previous offer of $1.65 million – so presumably there’s a vendor giving thought to what could have been done with that $50,000
8 Riversdale Court in Hawthorn; a good block of land with exceptional views over the Yarra sold for $2.7 million. $385 per foot in Hawthorn sounds good, but both the vendor and the agents were expecting well north of $3 million.
26 Cloverdale Avenue, Toorak, a three bedroom townhouse, sold right on the money for $2,250,000 but with just one bidder
Elsewhere, investors were still very active across the market.
Of the 16 auctions we attended on behalf of clients, only one property was passed in and all the others all had multiple bidders; usually two to three but ranging up to seven.
It’s a game of musical chairs and the tempo is quickening before the shuddering silence that is Christmas. No chair now? Panic!
If not now, the wait will be on until March and by then prices may have risen another 10%
In Sydney: more of more.
What felt like a quiet week in Sydney disguised a lot of action at the top end: a staggering 44 properties over $1.5 million changed hands. Part of the reason for the quiet feel was that the trend identified last week was almost duplicated this week with 19 of those 44 selling prior to auction. Only five properties in this bracket failed to sell which, surprisingly, were concentrated in the Lower North Shore, Eastern Suburbs and Inner West hotspots – including a very interesting three bedroom fusion of terrace and warehouse at 85 Surrey Street, Darlinghurst, which passed in on the vendor’s $2.625 million bid. There’s a real push on both sides of the fence to get deals over the line before the election and certainly before Christmas.
Apart from an off-market, blink of the eye $6 million plus Potts Point corner penthouse deal earlier in the week, we took line honours late on Friday with a six bedroom house with a great feel and masses of potential at 37 Kings Road, Vaucluse. At $3.9 million it was pleasing price given recent comparable sales in that suburb. The rest of the Eastern Suburbs was a long way back.
Again demonstrating what we said last week about Bronte – as well as the old adage that position is everything – a ‘near knock-down north to the rear’ at 57 Hewlett Street, Bronte sold for $2.6 million.
A five bedroom home at 8 Manwaring Avenue, Maroubra sold for $2.201 million followed by $1.965 million for a four bedroom home at 27 Clyde Street, North Bondi ? a suburb that is really starting to boom.
The sale prior to auction of the quaint and free standing four bedroom home at 1 Little West Street, Darlinghurst was next at $1.8 million and a tidy $1.5 million was paid for a three bedroom house at 39 Shaw Avenue, Kingsford ? not a bad price for a suburb right under the flight path.
The North Shore grabbed the silver medal with a four bedroom home 8 Dorset Road, Northbridge, selling prior to auction for $3.175 million. The bronze medal was awarded further up the coast: a five bedroom house at 101 Quirk Street, Dee Why, also selling prior to auction for $3.09 million. Just up the road at 105 Wimbledon Avenue, North Narrabeen, $2.78 million bought a huge 5+ bedroom house right on the lake with all the bells and whistles; including a three car garage.
On the Lower North Shore, the unit forest again prevailed: $2.788 million for a three bedroom unit at 2001/55 Lavender Street, Milsons Point. Here again, point blank views of the Harbour Bridge around to Lavender Bay more than compensated for a less than inspirational floor plan and the Luna Park ferris wheel which is almost on the doorstep.
Interesting to see where the value lies when $2.63 was needed to buy a four bedroom house further up but to the west of Military Road at 14 Pearl Bay Avenue, Mosman – it’s a picturesque hollow for most of the day except in the mornings when it is prone to heavy traffic.
Not a huge amount of excitement in the west apart from $2.8 million securing a five bedroom home prior to auction at 1 Toocooya Road, Hunters Hill. Next in line was $1.87 million for a four bedroom home on 3 Pearson Street, Balmain East, which is becoming a fairly typical price bracket for those kinds of properties in that neck of the woods.
Signs of life at last in ‘The Shire’: the $2.65 million sale by private treaty of a 4-5 bedroom house with a deep waterfront marina on over 800m2 at 66 Roper Crescent, Sylvania Waters.
All up, as in Melbourne, this week in Sydney strongly suggests buyers care as little about the rate rise as they do about the Federal election.