Adelaide’s turn at top of the auction table with $2.1m sale leading way
Adelaide had the nation’s strongest capital city weekend auction market and its top sale, a Henley Beach South listing, highlighted 2021’s quick price growth.
Adelaide had the nation’s strongest capital city weekend auction market, according to realestate.com.au. And its top sale, a Henley Beach South listing, highlighted 2021’s quick price growth.
The two-storey 1930s bungalow fetched $2.12m. The five-bedroom house last sold in February at $1.875m through the same Ray White selling agents Anthony Fahey and Jae Curtis.
The $245,000 gain reflected an annualised 26 per cent price appreciation, simply stunning for Adelaide, which is traditionally the sleepiest of capital city property markets.
The auctioneer Jonathon Moore took bids from four of the six registered bidders for the home at 154 Seaview Rd, which got its renovation and extension in 2010 costed at $300,000.
The weekend vendors had been looking for several years and fell in love with the home, which has views of the ocean and the Adelaide Hills. But their move to Henley from the Riverland was sidetracked when a substantial listing came up near Glenelg which suited them better, as it had larger land with a tennis court and was closer to their family.
“If they didn’t secure a decent price for Henley Beach South they were quite content to hold the home and rent it out, as they love it,” Fahey said.
They had put it up for $1285 weekly rental.
The home, which sold at $1.41m in 2011, was bought by a local young professional couple.
Henley Beach South has just four properties for sale, with realestate.com.au calculating a $1.13m median house price, based on five years of sales at compound growth rate of 8.3 per cent.
Adelaide saw the nation’s cheapest sale when $315,000 was paid in Munno Para West, a northern suburb within the City of Playford.
The three-bedroom, 2012-built home had also been listed in quick succession, having previously sold early last year for $265,000. Its annualised price appreciation was 12 per cent at its weekend sale, under mortgagee instructions.
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More gains ahead
Notwithstanding the economic and emotional challenges, the on-off-on pandemic lockdowns across the three east coast capital cities are disrupting stock supply. And with few signs of weakening buyer demand, prices remain strong.
Further strengthening is likely through winter, especially in Sydney and Brisbane.
John McGrath’s ASX-listed McGrath advised it had 60 weekend auction listings across Sydney and NSW. It sold 51 houses and apartments, but the prices of almost half were withheld from publication.
The same Saturday in August last year McGrath conducted 70 auctions, with 41 sales, so fewer listings but more sales. The other listed agency, The Agency, doesn’t provide any weekly insights, but high clearance rates and restrained stock is being experienced across the industry.
Sydney total listings volumes were down in July by 22 per cent annually, according to realestate.com.au boss Owen Wilson, as lockdowns hit. Melbourne listings were up 3 per cent. The listings shortage sits against the backdrop of a 55 per cent increase in buyer inquires, Wilson advises.
Year-on-year comparisons do need to be taken with caution given the evolving nature and timing of lockdowns across the country over the past 18 months. And comparisons with 2019 are also problematic, given the disruption produced by the May federal election between Scott Morrison and Bill Shorten, in the battle over negative gearing and capital gains tax policies.
But active Sydney listing numbers sit 13 per cent below the five-year average, according to CoreLogic’s Tim Lawless.
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Top terrace
Melbourne was the busiest auction location with 1200 weekend auction listings, and a further 300 scheduled across Victoria, compared to around 200 on the same weekend last August.
Melbourne’s top reported sale was in Albert Park when an 1880s Kerferd Rd terrace fetched $3.67m. The four-bedroom corner terrace sold through Warwick Gardiner and Mack Burgoine at Greg Hocking Jellis Craig Port Phillip. There were 10 registered parties for the Zoom auction, with pre-auction guidance of $3.1m to $3.3m.
It previously sold in late 2019 at $2.97m when offloaded by the former Essendon star Mark Mercuri and his partner Holly Higgins, who undertook the contemporary extension that made it an all-white two-storey terrace. They had paid $1.517m in 2013 for the 164sq m holding at the corner of Herbert St.
A Malvern listing, scheduled for auction next weekend, was brought forward. The three-bedroom home at 56 Dixon St sold at an undisclosed price, understood to be $4.65m.
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Brisbane is booming
Brisbane was the busiest of the smaller auction markets with 160 auctions held. However, like other capitals involved in a lockdown, the proportion withdrawn jumped over the week to 22 per cent.
Nearly half of Brisbane’s sales were sold prior.
Its priciest fetched $3.31m in Hawthorne under the hammer through Ray White agents Brandon Wortley and Scott Darwon.
The Harris St home had previously been sold in 2012 for $2.61m by Brisbane Lions star turned Fox Footy presenter Jonathan Brown and wife Kylie when they made their brief move to the Gold Coast hinterland.
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No hesitation
Sydney’s top weekend sale was an Abbotsford house sold for $4.74m in an online auction.
It attracted six registered bidders who took the bidding $640,000 above the reserve for the three-bedroom house. The Fitzroy Street house traded at $567,500 in 1995 and attracted nearly 40 bids before being knocked down to a young family from the inner west.
“There were no nerves or hesitation to list and sell their home during the lockdown,” said selling agent Chris Wilkins of Ray White Drummoyne.
There was a pre-auction sale in Mosman when $6.125m was paid for a five-bedroom heritage home on a 708sq m Gladstone Ave holding that last sold at $600,000 in 1993.
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Lockdown mania
One of the strongest Sydney sales was at Oatlands, in the heart of the local government areas under police lockdown. Lou Taylor at Taylor Property secured $3.1m for the imposing three-bedroom home.
Taylor had issued 88 contracts and there were 17 registered bidders at its midday Saturday online auction. They lodged 33 bids for the Ellis St offering that was marketed as being on one of the Parramatta district’s best streets.
The Stanfield family, who established the local dairy in the 1930s, were its vendors. Their old milk depot still stands at the rear of the holding, having sold off an adjoining parcel for $1.2m in 2015.
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