Coronavirus real estate: first-home buyers dominate digital auctions
Online-only auctions have quickly become the “new normal” in Melbourne, since the coronavirus pandemic sparked a ban on on-site bidding. And first-home buyers are stepping up to win them.
First-home buyers have stepped up to win some of the first Melbourne auctions run fully online in the age of coronavirus.
A young woman who’d been living in Preston with her mum snared a one-bedroom Fairfield apartment at an auction conducted on Zoom on Friday night.
Seven registered bidders logged into the video conferencing app to vie for 4/121 Gillies St, Fairfield.
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Two got their chance to virtually put their hands up — by typing in and sending their offers via Zoom’s messaging function — as the price rose from $370,000 to $415,000 in 10 bids.
Vendor Sally, who declined to give her surname, said she had been “nervous and excited” about digitally auctioning her property.
“I don’t know if I was more nervous than I would have been at a physical auction though,” she said.
“I’m very happy (with the result).”
Sally had held the renovated apartment in a 1960s cream-brick building as an investment since 2012, when CoreLogic records show it fetched $263,000.
The Bisi Agent director John Bisignano declined to reveal the reserve, but said the vendor’s price expectations had fallen within the $350,00-$380,000 quoted range.
He said the property had mostly attracted first-home buyers, with about 50 parties inspecting it during the selling campaign. This had been shortened to three weeks when the auction was brought forward from its scheduled April 4 date.
“With the uncertainty around the current climate and new legislation, I felt the buyer interest in the property warranted an early auction,” Mr Bisignano said.
“The theatre (of an on-site auction) was gone. But I feel like the result would have been the same.”
EYS auctioneer Manny Zennelli gave participants plenty of time to bid, and asked each of them to actively declare they were “out” before bringing down the hammer.
“You’re dealing with people in remote places, on different types of interest connections and devices,” Mr Zennelli said.
“But for as long as this continues on, we’ll continue doing online auctions … to get unconditional deals done for sellers.”
A first-time buyer also won a 1970s three-bedroom house further north in Thomastown, via streaming and bidding platform Anywhere Auctions.
Four bidders placed 19 offers via the website and phone calls with Harcourts Rata & Co agents to take 16 Sherwood Drive to a $615,000 sale in the vicinity of the reserve.
Agent Daniel Galea said both the vendor and buyer had been enthusiastic about adapting to the “new normal”.
“It was a healthy result for both of them,” he said.
“We had a lot of out-of-area people watching the auction, and a few phone calls post-auction from people who are keen to take advantage of the current market.”
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Originally published as Coronavirus real estate: first-home buyers dominate digital auctions