Hi,

There were fewer auctions over the Anzac Day weekend with 704 reported to the REIV producing a clearance rate of 80%. 566 sold at auction, 138 passed in and there were an additional 183 private sales. We will have five weeks straight of high auction numbers before the Queen’s Birthday weekend with the 1st of May being a super Saturday (a weekend with more than 1,000 auctions scheduled).

Family homes have been performing very well at auction with many producing results well above their reserve prices. There are examples of this all over Melbourne and regional Victoria as buyers upgrade for more space. Some family home buyers are looking for bigger backyards and a home office (or extra bedroom) as a result of spending more time at home last year and changes to the way we work.

The auction of 14 Landcox Street, Brighton East had four bidders wanting to secure the five bedroom, four bathroom period home on over 1,000 sqm. The property was quoted $3,200,000 to $3,225,000 and sold for $3,503,000. Buyers were drawn to the substantial land size and the number of rooms the property had, even having a fully self-contained studio at the rear.

36 Stuart Avenue, Cheltenham was very popular with buyers due to the entry level price point for a house beach side of the highway. The three bedroom, two bathroom, orange brick home was quoted $1,300,000 – $1,350,000 before auction. A flurry of bidding pushed the price well above the reserve price selling for $1,663,000.

The auction of 67 Deep Creek Drive, Doncaster East (a large four bedroom, three bathroom home on 1,600 sqm) had five bidders. The property was declared on the market at $2,700,000 and sold for $3,050,000. The property had a swimming pool, a tennis court, four bedrooms, three living areas and a home office.

It is not unusual for properties to be selling 10% to 20% above the advertised prices in the current market. This is mostly not due to underquoting as such, but from strong buyer demand pushing the prices well above the agents estimated selling range and vendor’s reserve prices.

Have a great week.

Kim Easterbrook

Hi,

There were 922 auctions reported to the REIV weekend producing a strong clearance rate of 86%. 623 sold at auction, 169 sold before auction and in addition there were 207 private sales.

Active bidding, large crowds, reserves were smashed and whilst we thought a slow down in growth was in sight, the results from the weekend demonstrated this may not be the case. There is high interest from buyers across the board from investors, first home buyers, upsizers, downsizers, renovators/developers with pressure on prices at all price points.

Land sites for buyers looking to build large family homes are in high demand, 13 Mangan St, Balwyn sold at auction on the weekend for $3,381,000 with five bidders trying to secure the land site. The price quoted was $2,800,000 to $3,000,000. Another land site at 3 Bay Street, Parkdale sold for $2,575,500 on an agents price guide of $1,950,000 to $2,145,000. Whilst some agents price guides are low, reserves generally speaking have not been too far from the top of the range. It is the buyer competition that is pushing prices to these levels.

The REIV released their quarterly data last week which showed property prices increased by 8.8% in Melbourne, resulting in the Melbourne median house price surpassing the $1 million mark for the first time. The house prices in regional Victoria increased by 4% which equates to 12% growth for the year and 19% for units. The median unit prices across Melbourne increased by 5% for the quarter.

The amount of transactions for the quarter reached 35,000 which is the highest in six years. We are still playing a lot of catch up from last year however no one could have predicted the level of interest property has received this year.

Have a great week.

Kim Easterbrook

Hi,

A huge amount of properties went under the hammer over the weekend achieving a clearance rate well in to the 80’s again for many weeks in a row. 1,451 properties went to auction over the weekend, with 964 selling at auction, 270 selling before, 1 sold after auction and 216 passed in. In addition, there were 208 private sales.

In comparison, this time last year there were 1,161 auctions achieving a clearance rate of 90% and was the last weekend before Covid cases started to rise in Australia and fear started to set into property buyers.

Strong price growth is expected for the March quarter with no slow down in sight. Huge crowds attended auctions on the weekend with many auctions experiencing strong bidding from multiple parties.

Australia’s population growth declined to its slowest rate in almost 15 years with negative net overseas migration and a drop in the national fertility rate. It is expected that the population growth will remain low to negative for quite some time to come, but, when international travel is allowed again, overseas migration will start to rise and population will start to grow again. This could put further pressure on property prices.

10 Rowe Street, Fitzroy North sold on the weekend for $915,000 above its reserve price. The unrenovated, three bedroom hawthorn brick home was quoted $2,600,000 to $2,860,000 before auction. The first opening big was $3,000,000 and the property was immediately announced on the market. The price soared from there selling at $3,915,000 which was over $915,000 above reserve.

2/48 Argyle Avenue, Chelsea had a lot of interest from first home buyers, investors and downsizers. This large two bedroom, two bathroom villa unit was quoted $595,000 to $650,000 prior to auction. Strong bidding from six parties (with many not getting the opportunity to put their hand up) resulted in the property selling for a whopping $850,000. Quality villa unit prices have historically grown strongly and due to the entry level price point for these properties, we believe prices will continue to keep growing.

Have a great week.

Kim Easterbrook

Hi,

There were 943 auctions on the weekend resulting in a clearance rate of 83%. Of the 943, 631 sold at auction, 154 before auction and there were an additional 201 private sales. Next weekend will be a Super Saturday with over 1,000 auctions and once again, the clearance rate should reach into the 80%’s.

According to CoreLogic, the Melbourne’s housing market rose 2.1% in February and was one of the strongest performing markets in the country, just behind Sydney and Hobart which experienced price growth of 2.5% over the month. Regional Victoria also experienced strong growth of 2.6% for the month and an overall price growth of 6.2% over the past 3 months. Houses in Melbourne are once again are outperforming units with overall price growth of 2.4% and units at 1.2%.

The amount of properties on the market has increased which has resulted in a healthy amount of transactions. However, if you speak to any buyer looking to purchase, they might argue that there is still a lack of quality stock to choose from.

Over the past six months, the amount of off market transactions has decreased inline with declining Covid-19 cases and auctions performing well. I am expecting this to change over the next few months as a result of the amended Residential Tenancy Act. Whilst some of these changes are long overdue, some of the requirements to get properties to a standard required by the Act may just be enough to push an investor to sell. Last year was no doubt a tough year for the rental market with some landlords having difficulty leasing out their property (although we have seen some recovery so far this year).

For this reason, we should see a small rise in off market activity as some landlords will sell their property with a tenant in place. The reason why a landlord will sell this way is that the property has not been styled/presented for sale and the buyers who inspect will need to be well qualified and educated to see through this.

Have a great week.

Kim Easterbrook

Hi ,

Masks were off over the weekend and bidding was fierce at some auctions. The REIV clearance rate was 84% on 937 auctions. 592 sold at auction, 195 sold before auction and there were an additional 194 private sales.

There is a huge interest in property at the moment, not only in Melbourne but across the state. The after effects of multiple lockdowns have seen many people rethink their way of living. The number of vendors selling due to a seachange or treechange has increased dramatically. On the flipside though, we have also experienced high level of enquiries of expats wanting to buy a base in Melbourne with a view of coming home over the next couple of years. There has also been an influx of Sydney buyers wanting real estate in Melbourne or Regional Victoria (mainly Geelong and Ballarat).

The demand in the upsizer market is putting strong pressure on the housing market, this has been caused by a large number of people rethinking about the type of property and space they need due to spending so much time at home over the past twelve months. Extra bedrooms, study’s and reasonable sized backyards are on the wish list to allow more flexibility to work from home and space for children to run around.

Over the weekend, there have been many reports of properties selling well above the advertised price range and the vendors reserve. While some of this has been caused by the increase in buyer demand, I do believe that some advertised price ranges are low and not in line with current market value. This is mostly not due to the agent under quoting the property, rather than vendors having extremely realistic reserves and at levels where prices were last year. Over the next few months that gap should decrease as vendor’s expectations start to rise due to the rising market.

The auction of 20 Cowper Street, Sandringham was of interest to many buyers. The property was a three bedroom, two bathroom original mid-century home on approximately 390 sqm of land. The appeal of the property was the location and the architectural uniqueness of the home. The property was quoted for $1,300,000 to $1,400,000 in the first week of the campaign but due to high interest levels was raised to $1,500,000 to $1,600,000. The property was announced on the market at $1,650,000 but what was interesting was the level of interest above this. There were still five bidders above $1,900,000 and three bidders above $2,000,000. The property sold for $2,105,000 to what appeared to be an owner occupier.

Another rare property to sell well above reserve was 15 Waltham Street, Flemington. The Victorian home on 500 square metres was hugely popular with the opening bid of $2,000,000 exceeding the reserve and putting the property on the market. The property sold for $2,560,000 which was $610,000 above the vendors reserve.

Interestingly, properties that were on the market last year and could not sell have been relisted and being snapped up quickly.

Have a wonderful week.

Kim Easterbrook

Auctions were back into full swing on the weekend with 823 auctions reported which was the highest number of auctions we have seen this year. Of those, 554 sold at auction, 151 sold before auction and 118 passed in. There were an additional 300 private sales. In comparison, this time last year there were 1,138 auctions with a clearance rate of 80%.

Auctions are now allowed to be conducted at the property with no limit on the amount of people attending. It was pleasing to see masks were worn by many, even when social distancing was achievable.

The gap between a property’s advertised price and sale price is broadening with many examples over the weekend of the sale result far exceeding the advertised price. In most of the cases, this is not due to a high vendor’s reserve but rather buyer competition pushing the price to these levels.

The auction of 27 Margaret Street, Carnegie was competitive with multiple bidders trying to secure this older style family home in need of some cosmetic updating on 610 sqm of land. The first bid of $1,650,000 put the property on the market but it did not stop there. There were five bidders over $1,700,000 with the property selling for $1,781,000.

The inner northern suburbs has been achieving some strong results with 55 Union Street, Brunswick being no exception. This two bedroom, one bathroom, single fronted Victorian home on 232 sqm in need of renovating sold $135,000 above the reserve for $1,075,000.

Although we are seeing a number of runaway results, there are still a number of properties that are selling exactly where the comparable sales demonstrate the value. There is also the odd property that is selling under what we thought it would achieve at auction. This means whilst there are many buyers in the market, some are still a little cautious of the price they are paying for property. In addition, there are some buyers who are waiting on their bank pre-approval due to long delays with the banks. Other buyers are just monitoring (sitting back) and watching the market just to see where it is at before they have the confidence to buy.

Selling agents have been reporting a substantial increase in vendors requesting market appraisals which means we should start seeing an increase in properties coming onto the market over the next month or so.

Have a wonderful week.

Kim Easterbrook

What a difference a week can make!

Victoria’s property market was thrown into disarray with the announcement of a ‘circuit breaking’ five day lock down from Friday, 11:59pm. Some scheduled auctions were immediately converted to online auctions, others were postponed to the following weekend and a few selling before auction. All of the scheduled open for inspections (for lease or sale) were cancelled with a mad rush for some agents to get prospective buyers/tenants through via private inspections on Friday. Under Stage 4 restrictions, inspections for pre-settlement, commencement or end of lease services are permitted.

The REIV clearance rate over the weekend is subject to change (and is not a true reflection of the current market) but at this stage stands at 95% on 329 auctions reported. 16 passed in, 170 sold at auction, 143 sold before auction, 60 were withdrawn, 219 postponed and 231 not reported.

It looks likely that regional Victoria’s lockdown will cease Wednesday night however it is still unknown what this week will look like for metropolitan Melbourne. We have adapted so well from the previous lockdowns it has been easy to convert most activities to online. If Stage 4 restrictions are extended, it will mean that the Melbourne real estate market will have a short pause before being fully functional again.

Will this have any affect on property prices? Not likely, but there is no doubt the economy has taken another hit, especially in the hospitality and retail sector. But we have lived through two of these before, lets just hope this third one is as short as we hope.

Kim Easterbrook

Auction numbers are on the rise with 430 auctions reported over the weekend resulting in a clearance rate of 82%. This time last year there were 392 auctions with a clearance rate of 76%.

Whilst we have only seen two weeks of auctions results this year, generally speaking, properties are selling above reserve and above the latest comparable sale in areas of metropolitan Melbourne, Geelong and Ballarat.

Each time there is a prediction of a property market crash, prices have often decreased a little and then bounce back stronger than before. Melbourne’s property market in particular, has just gone through it’s biggest test of all time and has shown amazing resilience. With the level of confidence and number of buyers in the market, it is likely we will see a rising market for the remainder of 2021 and beyond.

Jobkeeper is set to cease at the end of next month but as the economy starts to recover, this seems to be a less of a concern that it will affect the property market. In fact, it seems that some businesses are starting to rehire again. Also banks have extended out their mortgage holidays to the end of March but payment breaks are set to cease at the end of July. The amount of people on mortgage holidays though is less and less as time goes on.

There was a very interesting sale in Bentleigh East over the weekend. McKinnon High School is opening a new campus in 2022 to meet growing demands for the school. This has resulted in an extension in the school zone even spilling into Carnegie and Murrumbeena. 12 Fisher Court, Bentleigh East went to auction on the weekend which is now located in the new school zone. The property has a liveable but very dated home on 721sqm of land and sold for $1,610,500. A result that is estimated to be hundreds of thousands of dollars higher than what it would have achieved not being in the school zone. The last sale in the court was $660,000 in 2013.

Have a great week.

Kim Easterbrook

Happy New Year! I am looking forward to a more positive year with hopefully less challenges than what 2020 brought us.

The Victorian property market has swung back into action and signs are indicating that we are going to be in for a very active year. With record low interest rates, stamp duty concessions available to all purchases up to $1,000,000, record levels of savings which means some buyers have larger deposits (which means higher budgets), COVID-19 under control at the present time (in Australia) and with many people’s just wanted to get on with things now has created a spike in buyer demand.

There were 202 auctions reported over the weekend with a clearance rate of 82% in comparison to 203 auctions reported the same time last year with a clearance rate of 69% In addition there were another 153 private sales.

At the end of December 2020 quarter, Melbourne’s median house price reached a record $936,000 (an increase of 5.3% over the quarter). Units prices also reached a record high of $570,000 but the gap between houses and units prices seems to be widely with lock down changing the wants and needs of some property buyers to want more space. This has also put pressure on property prices in Regional Victoria with a shift in some people wanting the quieter lifestyle opting for a treechange or seachange. The Greater Geelong median house price is currently at $606,000 and achieved a growth rate of 4.1% over the past twelve months. We are predicting the growth rate in Geelong to be strong over the next six to twelve months as investors come back into the market and some families making the move from capital cities (including Melbourne and Sydney) to the area.

At Elite, we are seeing a range of new buyers coming into the market from first home buyers, upsizers, downsizers, local investors, interstate investors, expats purchasing homes with the view of returning to Melbourne, an increase in Sydneysiders moving to Melbourne and Geelong as properties are too expensive for some in Sydney. It appears that all segments of the market are active and will likely be so for this year.

The levels of stock on the market have been low which is a natural occurrence for the holiday period (December and January). Now that Australia Day has passed, stock levels will rise over the next few months starting this week and should continue until the end of May.

Have a great week.

Kim Easterbrook

Melbourne’s auction numbers are almost at normal Spring levels as the year begins to close. The REIV reported 803 auctions on the weekend which was an increase on last year but still down on the same weekend last year. A clearance rate of 80% was achieved. 492 sold at auction, 147 sold before auction and 1 after auction. In addition there were 285 private sales.

There has been a rush of properties onto the market over the past two weeks with auction dates as late as December 23. This is due to vendors and selling agents wanting to take advantage of the strong buyer activity that has occurred over the past month or so.

The Christmas break will be much shorter this year with many selling agents coming back to work on the 11th of January. A normal January would be very quiet with many agents not back until just before Australia Day, however this year we are expecting things to be a little bit different as we are still playing catch up from a disrupted year.

2021 is likely to be a busy year. Interest rates are at record lows, employment and buyer confidence is rising and now stamp duty discounts have been introduced for all properties under $1,000,000 which is bringing more investors into the market.

In Regional Victoria, the property market is very active with many properties selling within days of hitting the market and reaching prices well above the asking price (some properties being purchased sight unseen). Geelong also had a busy weekend of auctions with reports of many properties selling well above reserve. The auction of 12 Cambra Road, Belmont was competitive with six bidders wanting to secure the three bedroom, two bathroom renovated home. The reserve of $690,000 was overrun with a selling price of $777,000 being achieved. Belmont has been a popular area for investors and first home buyers for quite some time.

In Melbourne, the auction of 5 Fontein Street, West Footscray attracted 23 registered bidders with the opening bid of $880,000 hitting reserve and putting the property on the market. Mostly young couples participated in the auction with the property selling for $990,000 ($110,000 over reserve). Three bidders participated in the auction of Garry Lyon and Nicky Brownless’ home at 12 Ashleigh Road, Armadale with an original price guide of $3,000,000 to $3,300,000 and selling for $3,370,000.

After what has been an extremely challenging year, it is a great feeling to be finishing the year on a positive note. The vibe in Melbourne is a stark contrast of what it was only a few months ago buzzing with activity and so many smiles on people’s faces. The way that everyone has adapted this year is nothing short of amazing.

This is the last market wrap for the year so I would like to wish everyone a happy holiday season and a wonderful new year. Looking forward to seeing you all in 2021.

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