Melbourne housing market on the move as buyers emerge
Buyers have been out in force in Melbourne, driving strong results including an $11m sale.
Marshall White sales director Jack Bongiorno says the Melbourne market has strengthened recently.
“Buyers were out in force on Saturday, driving strong results across various price brackets,” Bongiorno said in an upbeat weekend LinkedIn post.
The Marshall White Boroondara office secured the $11m sale of Melbourne’s priciest weekend offering: Wembden, a 1908 Hawthorn residence built for butcher Robert Walters.
It had last traded at $54,250 when bought from the Walters family by ophthalmologist Peter Hardy-Smith and his late wife Beryl in 1973.
The Chrystobel Crescent house sits on 1600sq m, the largest of 33 homes designed by architect Christopher Cowper between 1908 and 1912 in the ornate Federation Queen Anne style on the Grace Park Estate.
No price disclosure from selling agents Duane Wolowiec and Desiree Wakim, whose price guide had been $7.5m to $8.2m.
But word of the sale quickly got around, since it was buyers agent Mal James who had directly felt the heat of the auction as the underbidder.
James noted a nearby $18.2m sale had recently recalibrated local market pricing.
“Period homes are back in favour big time,” he said, adding that “the Aussie Asian Balwyn specials of fake French are no longer the hot ones in Boroondara”.
Balwyn bonanza
There were just seven $5m-plus luxury auction offerings across Melbourne, with the second-highest known weekend result being the $4.595m paid for the five-bedroom, three-bathroom house at 5 Ellendale St, Balwyn North.
It sold under the hammer for $795,000 over reserve through Helen Yan at Ray White, whose marketing attracted 7550 page views on realestate.com.au.
There were four bidders for the house with Scandinavian-style interiors behind its nifty reclaimed clinker brick facade.
The Stonehaven Homes-designed dwelling sits in the sought-after Balwyn High School zone.
The vendors secured a $1,290,000 construction approval, according to Cordell Build, after the 1341sq m block sold for $1.7m in 2018.
Busy week
The massive Super Saturday of auctions failed to slow the market, My Housing Market chief economist Dr Andrew Wilson noted after reviewing the 3356 capital city results.
With 1176 homes taken to auction, Sydney saw off its busiest auction week since the week prior to Easter 2022.
Melbourne’s 1636 auction tally was its busiest since October 2023, in the week prior to the Melbourne Cup interruption.
Sydney saw a slight improvement in its preliminary clearance rate, week on week, with 75.9 per cent of auctions finding buyers, according to CoreLogic’s research analyst Caitlin Fono.
Melbourne’s preliminary clearance rate dipped below the 70 per cent mark for the second time this year, reaching 69.4 per cent.
The national preliminary clearance rate came in at 72.3 per cent, slightly lower than the prior week’s 74 per cent preliminary clearance rate, with a $1,135,000 median dwelling price.
Louis Christopher at SQM noted auction markets in Sydney and Melbourne opened the year stronger than expected, with volumes up 35 per cent compared to the 2023 opening months.
“The hope of interest rate cuts, ongoing surges in the population growth rate plus a fairly solid Sydney and Melbourne economy have contributed to the buoyant markets,” Christopher said.
“In recent weeks, auction clearance rates have somewhat softened as uncertainty grew on exactly when the RBA would cut rates.”
Christopher expects an uncertain auction market over the next few months, “but given the strength so far this year, our price expectations have increased and we now expect some moderate housing price gains in Sydney and Melbourne for 2024”.
The lap of luxury
There were a record 58 luxury Sydney properties set for weekend auctions seeking $5m or more on the last Saturday ahead of the Easter holiday break, with 21 finding buyers.
The nation’s dearest listing, the four-bedroom 1912 Federation trophy home Wonderview at Seaforth, failed to sell, having sought $15.5m from buyers.
It was last sold in 2022 on year-long settlement terms for $14m to the Leo family, who have decided to stay on the upper north shore because their sons are enrolled at Knox Grammar.
The property with tennis court, cabana, wet bar and pool attracted 9400 views on realestate.com.au, similar to the 9600 views last time.
The hillside, 1505sq m Edgecliffe Esplanade property had previously traded in 1982 at $625,000 when bought by Norman Kelso, the then managing director of the Norman Ross retailer.
No price disclosure but sales success in nearby Mosman for Craig Newman, the managing director at Blackstone Group’s real estate division and his wife Anna Brennan, general manager of Stylerunner retail chain.
Their renovated five-bedroom, four-bathroom Shadforth St house attracted more than 100 inquiries in the first week when listed with an $8.2m guide.
Triple treat
Sydney’s top known under-the-hammer result was $8.29m on the water in Abbotsford through inner west agent Fayez Yammine. The five-bedroom, four-bathroom Abbotsford Pde property has an original triple-storey residence on its street-to-shore 570sq m block with boat ramp.
Cooley auctioneer Michael Carolan told the crowd it was a tightly held address sitting amid prestige homes.
Agents secured 13 luxury pre-auction sales, including a Victorian-era abode on Alison Rd, Coogee, modernised by Anna Vaughan Architects, which was listed with an $8.25m guide through Alexander Phillips at PPD Real Estate, but fetched over $9m.
“The Sydney residential property market has strengthened in the past 14 days,” auctioneer Damien Cooley said.
“I believe more buyers are wanting to buy now rather than wait for interest rates to come down and prices go up.”
Ray White’s 605 national auctions had an average of 4.2 registered bidders and 2.7 active bidders per auction.
Quick recovery
Auction offerings will decrease heading into the Easter break.
There are 462 auctions scheduled in Sydney this week, while Melbourne has 303. Brisbane will have 80 and Adelaide 62.
PropTrack economist Anne Flaherty said volumes would quickly bounce back, led by Sydney’s 994 in the first week in April, followed by Melbourne with 885, Brisbane with 96 and Adelaide 61.
Lazarus rises
Rugby league legend and former politician Glenn Lazarus and wife Tess Sanders-Lazarus have sold their home in Brisbane’s west for $2,321,000.
They moved back to Canberra and bought next door to his mother Judy.
The five-bedroom, three-bathroom Mount Ommaney home was built 30 years ago.
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