Real Estate auction blog: Livestreams and rolling updates from Melbourne’s auction market

Melbourne’s auction market has responded to a 13th interest rate hike with Danny-Wallis-style erratic bids, famous faces selling above expectations and even two auctioneers calling the same sale.

Victoria’s auction market kicked back into high gear after a Melbourne Cup lull and a 13th interest rate hike.

And apart from some major sales above reserve including for MasterChef contestant turned ABC radio host Alice Zaslavsky, there was a slew of weird and wonderful sales moments from tag-team auctioneers to Danny Wallis-style erratic bidding.

Almost 1200 homes are expected to go under the hammer by the end of Sunday, with video streams and details of some of the more unusual ones highlighted below.

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This week also marks the seventh time the state has been slated for more than 1000 auctions since August in the most consistently strong start to the spring market since before the pandemic and among the strongest on record.

There are a further 1539 scheduled for the following weekend, about 200 short of this year’s busiest auction week, and another 1353 anticipated for the final week of November, according to PropTrack data.

Economist Angus Moore said Melbourne’s 1137 auctions this week were up 20 per cent on the same time last year.

It hints that four months of interest rates on pause before this week had given vendor’s more confidence to list this spring than they had in 2022 when there had been eight straight rises announced by the Reserve Bank.

AUCTION REPLAYS AND RESULTS

Bizarrely, a hike announced by the Reserve Bank this week could be good news for homesellers, according to Real Estate Institute of Victoria president Jacob Caine.

“People buying this weekend will have been looking at homes over three to four weeks and will have set their hearts on them, and potentially have anticipated the rate rise,” Mr Caine said.

“So I wouldn’t be surprised to see this week still relatively strong. People may want to borrow now, because they know they can service a loan at a higher rate, but their bank might not look quite so favourably at those rates.

“You could have people wanting to get things done in the climate they know, rather than wait to February or March.”

Last week, PropTrack figures show the state’s clearance rate was 57 per cent from 468 auction results. But both figures were likely suppressed by the Melbourne Cup long weekend, with the prior week’s clearance rate recorded at 67 per cent from 1180 results.

TWO AUCTIONERS AND A $236,000 BONUS

49 Strickland Drive, Wheelers Hill, sold with two auctioneers calling the sale.

A Wheelers Hill home that sold for $1.726m under the hammer scored a $236,000 premium.

But it took two auctioneers running a tag-team sale to get it there.

The 49 Strickland Drive home was advertised for $1.39m-$1.49m and bidding opened with a $1.4m offer.

Harcourts Judd White’s Andrew Dimashki was calling the sale for the four-bedroom residence at that point, but when it $1.5m his colleague Dexter Prack stepped in.

With multiple bidders in the hunt, the sale swapped back to Mr Dimashki at $1.68m.

When Mr Prack returned at $1.717m the first thing he did was declare the home on the market, which precipitated a few more bids.

Another change of auctioneer later, Mr Dimashki brought the hammer down at $1.726m.

RESERVE DISCLOSED

24 Birdwood Court, Doreen, sold under the hammer after its reserve was disclosed ahead of its weekend auction.

A vendor’s unusual decision to discloe their reserve price before the auction has ended with a sale — and a bonus for the seller.

The 24 Birdwood Court, Doreen, home went under the hammer with its $660,000 reserve advertised on its listing online ahead of auction day.

Barry Plant auctioneer Jay Moxon had to kick things off with a vendor bid at $600,000, but soon had live offers coming in.

True to the disclosure, the home was on the market at $660,000.

And the three-bedroom house was sold a bid later at $670,000.

I’LL GIVE YOU A DOLLAR

A marathon Boronia auction where one of the buyers seemed to be immitating the erratic bidding style of The Block serial bidder Danny Wallis included bids as low as $1.

While waiting for bidders to build up their nerve, Barry Plany auctioneer Mark Hughes joked he’d practiced his live sale technique with his daughter, who had offered him a $1 bid.

He even went so far as to say he’d take such an offer to get the auction for 11 Debson Close going.

But when a $500,000 opening bid, still $70,000 below reserve, was made things moved on.

Several bidders joined in and the three-bedroom house was on the market at $616,000.

Bidding dropped as low as $500 and then $250, before one of the buyers offered $631,499.

A competitor rounded it up, telling Mr Hughes they’d give him a dollar.

Things moved along in $500, $250 and $100 bids until a $636,777 offer emerged.

But in the end it settled into a two-horse race with one party offering and another $900 at a time until the latter claimed the keys at $656,000.

ZASLAVSKY COOKS UP TASTY AUCTION RESULT

Radio personality, author and former MasterChef contestant Alice Zaslavsky has sold her and partner Nick Fallu’s first home in a “spit fire” first-home buyer auction duel.

The ABC Radio Saturday Breakfast host and author of James Beard Awards short-listed In Praise of Veg was selling an Art Deco apartment at 5/3 Meredith St, Elwood, bought in 2014.

Zaslavsky’s property at 5/3 Meredith St, Elwood.

Incredibly, the apartment has more ovens than bedrooms after the pair oversaw a tasteful renovation that souped up the kitchen in the single-bedroom floorplan home that has hosted Michelin-starred chefs including Ashley Palmer-Watts, who was behind Dinner by Heston.

It also had more buyers registered for the auction than were able to bid, with McGrath auctioneer Michael Townsend noting a $520,000 opening offer was quickly topped.

A single first-home buyer and a young couple, also looking to get a start in the market, fought it out in $10,000 increments, then in $5000 and $1000 offers before they finally exchanged bids as low as $500.

Alice Zaslavsky pictured with Alisha Henderson. Picture: FIONA BYRNE

Mr Townsend called the home on the market at $580,000, well after it had hit the reserve thanks to the speed of bidding.

The single first-home buyer claimed the keys, and Mr Townsend said the vendors were thrilled with a $593,000 sale.

Zaslavsky previously told the Herald Sun she had never thought they would sell the “grown-up treehouse”, but was doing so after selling a family.

The home was listed with a $520,000-$560,000 asking price.

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