Coronavirus and Melbourne auctions: Online activity ramps up
Shane Warne’s mansion and the Ristevski murder house were scheduled for auction tomorrow but have been pulled. Plenty will move online though, as the method shakes off “teething issues”.
Shane Warne’s lavish Brighton mansion and the house where Karen Ristevski was murdered are some of the high-profile Saturday auctions that won’t go ahead after the public events were outlawed last week.
As coronavirus fears escalated in March, the cricketer’s property campaign was converted to a private sale, while the Ristevski home was pulled from the market entirely.
Barry Plant Moonee Valley director Bill Karp told the Herald Sun they had postponed the Ristevski auction in Avondale Heights until a later date, which was yet to be confirmed.
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But there are dozens of agencies still looking to secure sales via online auctions, conducted on platforms like Zoom and Google Hangouts, and online bidding sites like Gavl.
EYS auctioneers director Fabian Sanelli said his company had a “no sale, no charge” policy for auctions they conducted this weekend.
“We understand the process is really fresh and raw, and also that cash is king at the moment,” Mr Sanelli said.
“Vendors don’t want to be paying for services they don’t need, so if it doesn’t sell we’re happy not to charge.”
The auctioneering company is taking 4 Melaleuca Court in Frankston under the hammer via Zoom on Saturday afternoon.
Another 15 properties are going to auction via the Ray White Group this weekend. Ferntree Gully director Ben Thomas said they were pushing on with auctions because they often provided a better result for vendors.
“We want to achieve unconditional contracts for our vendors and we don’t want finance issues to drag on for weeks,” Mr Thomas said.
“We’re still open to selling prior to auction, but we won’t take offers unless they are unconditional.”
There are nine properties in Knox scheduled to go under the hammer this weekend, including a family home at 61 Rathmullen Rd in Boronia with a $690,000-$750,000 guide.
Gavl chief executive Joel Smith said 50 per cent of the auctions that were due to be streamed on the platform last Saturday, March 28, were cancelled and moved to other sale methods.
CoreLogic auction analyst Kevin Brogan said it would be interesting to see whether some of the kinks were worked out this weekend.
“Agents were given under a week’s notice to reinvent their processes, but it will be interesting to see how they go with a bit more notice,” Mr Brogan said.
“A lot of the teething issues have gone away … in the long term I think they (online auctions) could become more prevalent.”
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Originally published as Coronavirus and Melbourne auctions: Online activity ramps up