A Cup For Every Starter
There are cups and there are cups. Some filled with champagne, others with flat beer.
And it’s been some horse race out there.
The Sprinters
$2-4m. Huge field and queues of jockeys, yet results still vary between tears of joy and disappointment. Some vendors coming home to cheering crowds, others doomed to drown their lonely sorrows.
The winning riders place their bums on reality, the too ambitious don’t understand their handicaps.
The Stayers
At the very top end, Toorak and South Yarra are quietly setting records. Typically you’ll see only one or two interested buyers and, commonly, they make take-it-or-leave-it offers (some still nudging the stratosphere).
The Impossible Dreamers
Amid all the cries of a market boom, aspirations too-readily rise above reality. We’ve had too many agents tell us we’re dreaming and then they watch us walk away with the prize (don’t they know we know the buyers better than they ever will?).
We’ve also felt for vendors and their rude awakenings. There’s one at 3 Myanmyn Street holding out for $675k above the pass-in figure.
Hope springs eternal.
November Gets Ahead Of Itself
November is when the weird stuff is supposed to happen but then, last week…
An EOI is cut short. An offer has been made that the vendor wants to grab, so all bets have to be on by 5pm that day.
Not a great move.
The offer is $250k above all others. 5pm comes and goes. High fives.
Later…
Another bidder makes a late offer – an extra $750k.
Too late. The deal is done.
Vendor last seen curled up, whimpering under his bed.
Unsettling Searches For Stability
The word is that the Reserve Bank wants to take the heat out.
And the Senate Enquiry wants to lessen overseas-driven over-heating.
Rumours of impending RBA-mandated loan to valuation ratios circulate.
Suggestions that the Senate Enquiry will lead to a more active Foreign Investment Review Board are chattered.
Mainland Chinese interest appears to be waning.
Brows furrow.
Everything Old Is…
Didn’t work last time? Get a new agent. Give it another shot.
Throw another $30k at promotion.
But don’t do the one thing that matters: Get real about price.
Are you listening, 17 Maple Grove?
Petrol Rationing
Huge range out there on the internet.
Massive ad spends going on.
And at least half are not worth filling your tank to go and see.
Next?
Unless top end clearances pick up soon, expect prices to cool.
But if they do run out the door?
Shudder.
David Morrell