Coronavirus: call for Victoria to revive private on-site auctions
A leading buyer’s advocate has called for private auctions with a 10-person limit to resume in Victoria from this weekend. But the state’s peak real estate body thinks it should be “all or nothing”.
Private on-site auctions limited to 10 people should be permitted in Victoria from this weekend, a leading buyer’s advocacy group says.
The call comes as agents in other states have been given the go ahead to resume public sales.
But the Real Estate Institute of Victoria said when face-to-face auctions returned, it should be “all or nothing”, with online sales filling the void for now.
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Prime Minister Scott Morrison outlawed on-site and in-room auctions, along with open for inspections, nationwide in late March to help curb the spread of coronavirus.
Those restrictions are set to be lifted in New South Wales and the Northern Territory from next weekend, while Western Australian open homes can now be attended by up to six people.
Face-to-face auctions remain banned in Victoria, and prospective buyers and tenants can only inspect properties digitally or one-on-one with real estate agents.
In his weekly newsletter, James Buyer Advocates principal Mal James urged Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and Chief Health Office Brett Sutton to allow “private auctions limited to 10 people on the premises” from as soon as May 8.
He said these auctions would be “socially distanced, similar to funerals”, which could be “easily achieved” by requiring agents to put “all potential bidders through a verifying process” and making the auctions invite only.
“Online auctions may be a way of the future, but that future is some time off,” Mr James wrote.
“Face-to-face auctions can bring confidence and trust back in the market.”
Mr James added virtual and single-person inspections were working well, and also suggested the government should consider insisting all advertised price ranges “contain the reserve to reduce the chances of unnecessary travel”.
Victorian Government spokeswoman Stephanie Jones said the state’s political leaders would continue to “follow the advice of the Chief Health Office to determine when it is appropriate and safe for on-site auctions to recommence”.
Buxton Bentleigh director John Rombotis said he’d welcome a return to “face-to-face auctions with just a small group of registered bidders”, following a “frightening” few weeks for the property market.
But Real Estate Institute of Victoria vice president Adam Docking said his organisation was “happy to stick with the government regulations” until public auctions could resume as normally as possible, at which point Melbourne would “recement itself as the auction capital of the world”.
“The hard part (with private auctions) will be, how do you restrict them? Are you restricting them only to bidders, or potential sellers as well?” he said.
Mr Docking said auctions were a “fantastic tool for researching the market” and as such, typically attracted would-be vendors and buyers as well as genuine purchasers.
Online auctions had effectively filled the void, with some attracting as many as 120 people and generating strong sales, he said.
Ray White Victoria and Tasmania chief auctioneer Matt Condon said buyers in particular had become “very comfortable with bidding online”.
He said four digitally bid for a retro three-bedroom house at 4 Jones Court, Laverton, on the weekend, pushing the sale price past a $430,000 reserve to $476,500.
And seven parties placed a whopping 153 bids to push 56 Josephine Ave, Mt Waverley, $131,000 past reserve to a $1.257 million online auction sale on Saturday.
Mr Condon said he suspected on-site auctions with limited attendees would be Victoria’s next step, with NSW to provide a road map of what’s ahead.
When auctions and open homes resume in NSW, the number of attendees will be limited, and physical distancing, hand sanitiser and stringent cleaning of properties will be mandatory.
Anyone displaying symptoms of illness will be barred, and agents will need to keep records of attendees in case contact tracing is needed.
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Originally published as Coronavirus: call for Victoria to revive private on-site auctions