Times a-changin’. Back?

Are we seeing – at least at the top end – the end of the auction era?

And are advertised ‘private’ sales approaching the end of their road?

More and more the real action is off-market (much of it not even involving agents).

But … why?

The answer to the auction question is easy: At the top end it’s because they so rarely work. All that time, money and emotion squandered on damp squibs of pass-ins.

Private sales? The irony is that they’re anything but private – they typically involve agent-encouraged hordes of strangers tramping through otherwise private lives and that’s few people’s idea of a good day.

Inspections by appointment may gasp a little longer, but more and more it’s now word-of-mouth.

In this information age, we’re heading back to methods which pre-date newspaper classifieds.

That’s been true in a significant number of recent $10m + sales.

Ironies. Everywhere you look, ironies.

Christopher Koren

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