Sunday auctions become popular in Queensland
GOING . . . going . . . gone are peaceful Sundays for homebuyers, with more sellers auctioning their homes in on the first day of the week.
GOING . . . going . . . gone are peaceful Sundays for homebuyers, with more and more sellers auctioning their homes in Queensland on the first day of the week.
Brisbane auctioneer Jason Andrew said Sunday auctions were on the increase.
Mr Andrew said the trend towards Sunday auctions originally was a result of the demand on auctioneers, many of whom were booked out on a Saturday.
In the past, Sunday auctions were confined to coastal regions where agents hoped to benefit from an influx of weekend holidaymakers, but the practice had now extended to the cities.
"There are a lot of agents who realise that Saturday open homes are really important to them, so they are moving the auctions more towards Sundays," Mr Andrew said.
"It also means you get an extra open home in on a Saturday, which is a nice benefit.
"In a challenging market, agents are realising they need to do more."
Mr Andrew said it also seemed to suit buyers.
"On the first day of the weekend, people have so much to do," he said.
"It is school sport day. It is shopping day. On Sundays, people have days off and our crowd sizes are reflecting that."
Mr Andrew said weeknight auctions - even early in the week - were also on the increase.
"It doesn’t matter where and it doesn’t matter when anymore," he said.
"If the job (marketing the property) is done correctly, people will turn up and it will be sold."
Ray White Ipswich has 25 properties going under the hammer on Sunday at the Spring Lake Hotel.
Principal Warren Ramsey said the agency had held auctions on a Sunday for more than 12 months.
Mr Ramsey said they usually ran auctions on Friday afternoons or Sundays and commercial auctions on Wednesdays.
"It works really, really well,’’ he said.
He agreed that Saturday was already a busy day with children’s sport and work.
"And it allows us to have the last open house on a Saturday before the Sunday auction,’’ he said.
Auction clearance rates in Brisbane are slightly up on the previous year. Figures released by RP Data show that at the end of last week it was 36.8 per cent, compared with 32.3 per cent the same week last year.
Auctions still make up a small percentage of the Brisbane, 11.9 per cent of all sales.