Melbourne’s auction clearance rate jumped over the week to Saturday to 87 per cent – the second-highest rate all year – as inspection restrictions eased and more vendors put homes on sale rather than withdrawing them.
Data provider CoreLogic on Sunday raised its number of auctions in the Victorian capital for the week to 800 from 778 on Thursday as the preliminary read on auction results rose from 77.2 per cent a week earlier. Canberra’s total ticked up slightly as well.
The changes in number were small, but still a marked difference to the run in recent weeks of withdrawn sales, which count as unsuccessful auctions, CoreLogic head of research Tim Lawless said.
“It’s pretty rare to see an upward revision,” Mr Lawless told The Australian Financial Review.
“It is definitely a turn of the previous trend, which is more indicative that the eased rules around property inspections in Melbourne and Canberra are seeing more vendors willing to test the market than push it back.”
In Melbourne’s leafy Glen Iris, a four-bedroom house marketed with a price guide of $2.9 million to $3.2 million sold for $3,715,000 in an online auction that drew four bidders.
In a fast-paced auction, Marshall White Boroondara agent Hamish Tostevin said he could only call the house at 57 Iris Road on the market at $3.3 million.
The property was originally due to have been auctioned in late August, but Melbourne’s lockdown put that campaign on hold. When conditions lifted, allowing scheduled home inspections again, the property ran for just a two-weekend campaign.
“[The price] was quite a surprise,” Mr Tostevin said.
“I didn’t think it would go nearly as strong as that. I was a bit nervous during the week – we lost one buyer. They pulled out. But then I took someone through yesterday morning, an hour before, and they ended up being the underbidder.”
In Sydney, where Monday is a holiday for Labour Day, the number of scheduled auctions dipped to 753 from 778 a week earlier and the preliminary clearance rate also slipped to 82.4 per cent from 84.3 per cent. Withdrawn auctions also increased.
In inner-western Glebe, a three-bedroom house on a 137-square-metre corner block sold for $260,000 above the reserve. There were seven registered bidders and four parties bid in the auction, pushing the home at 82 Catherine Street up to $2.31 million, Domain reported.
House prices across Australia surged 20.3 per cent in the year to end-September, the fastest rate in three decades, CoreLogic figures on Friday showed.
Separate official figures confirmed the return of investors to the market – new loan commitments for investment purchases rose 1.5 per cent – making it even more likely regulators will impose lending curbs to the overheating market that is becoming ever-more unaffordable for younger people.
In Melbourne’s inner-northern suburb of Northcote, a five-bedroom house with a pool was declared on the market at $2.2 million and added a further $172,000, to sell for $2,372,000 in an online auction on Saturday, Domain reported.
The national preliminary clearance rate picked up to 84.4 per cent from the previous week’s initial 82.4 per cent – a figure later revised down to 80.6 per cent. But with four in every five homes selling at auction, the market is buoyant.
Canberra was again the strongest of the smaller cities, with a first-take clearance rate of 89.6 per cent based on the reported 106 results of 113 scheduled auctions.
Adelaide, with 132 auctions scheduled, returned an 85.6 per cent rate and Brisbane, with 171 scheduled auctions, posted a preliminary 79.5 per cent clearance rate. Perth had just 15 auctions scheduled and Tasmania two.
This article is from Australian Financial Review, please click the following link for the original article: https://www.afr.com/property/residential/vendors-return-as-melbourne-restrictions-ease-20211003-p58wr2
