There’s plenty of heat in Brisbane’s housing market with even builders fighting over properties
As perfect proof the sizzling heat in Brisbane’s housing market hasn’t cooled, even those with deep inside knowledge are struggling to buy properties, with one company admitting they’ve just lost out on their sixth home at auction in three weeks.
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A DECADE-old building company can testify to the sizzling heat still evident in Brisbane’s housing market after missing out on their sixth home at auction in three weeks.
Marie G owners Rob and Marie Gjorgioski were one of the underbidders for a four-bedroom knockdown on a 640sq m block at Gordon Park early on Saturday morning that sold to an unknown rival.
A young couple, who were auction novices, kicked off the bidding at $800,000 with the house at 32 Ilford St being declared on the market at $1.075m.
Although there were 11 registered bidders among the 30 strong crowd, just four got to raise their paddles.
As the price climbed into the $1.2m range, the young novices kept in the race with $1000 bids only for a man, who was dealing with a developer over the phone, to trump them each time with a $4000 hike.
Watching all this unfold and waiting for their opportunity to break into the auction were Marie G Building and Construction company owners Rob and Marie whose last bid was $1.28m.
The developer then chimed in with a $1.285m offer, followed by the novices with their usual $1000 bump before the developer landed the house for $1.29m with the 30th bid of the morning.
The hammer price was $215,000 more than when the house was declared on the market. It was yet another house that the Gjorgioski’s have missed out on in the past three weeks although they are not done with yet.
“We buy houses to renovate, raise, rebuild or knockdown and this is probably the hardest time we’ve ever had trying to buy homes in more than 10 years,” Marie said.
“What we are finding is there are fewer bidders but there is more emotion in the bidding with people in fear of missing out and there are also a lot of interstate buyers.”
Adding to their dilemma of not being able to secure a property this year, has been the constant rising building costs.
They have eroded profit margins and made them cautious about being drawn into a bidding war with the likes of the determined rival developer at Gordon Park, they said. “Every time some would bid he would come back quickly every time, so he was obviously invested in it,” Rob said. “We really have to have a commercial mindset and not be drawn into emotional buying because construction costs are rising and that plays a massive part in our thinking and our budget.”
Auctioneer Phil Parker praised the vendor for having a realistic reserve.
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