Melbourne property market busy, but turnover is ‘easing’
Melbourne was the nation’s busiest weekend market, with its 1300 auctions reflecting a 27 per cent week-on-week boost in stock levels.
Melbourne was the nation’s busiest weekend market, with its 1300 auctions reflecting a 27 per cent week-on-week boost in stock levels.
Of the 1140 results collected so far, 74 per cent were successful, leaving Melbourne the only capital to record a weekly rise in its preliminary clearance rate.
However buyers’ agent Mal James advised the prestige Melbourne market “is easing, as demand drops, as buyer urgency decreases”.
He said price growth was still possible on most A-grade listings but the growth rate would ease. And there would be falls on B and C grade listings, he said.
Mr James noted clearance rates tended to give “exaggerated” readings of the market as agents left out the bad news – the unsolds.
“The market is seemingly continuing where it left off pre-Christmas on a downward slide, but it’s early days and (February) auction days never see all the premier stock,” he noted.
Nationally last week’s auction stock was up 20 per cent with 2898 auctions held across the capital cities. There was a preliminary 74 per cent success rate, but Eliza Owen at CoreLogic noted it was likely the revised final figures could mark the end of the upwards trend in clearance rates seen throughout 2022.
Canberra had the highest clearance rate for the fourth consecutive week at 80 per cent.
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Malvern star
Melbourne’s top reported result was $8.4m in Malvern. The four-bedroom 1890s Glendearg Grove home sold after being passed in on a single $8m bid.
The classic Victorian era home had been listed with an $8m price guide through Kay & Burton agent Scott Patterson, having last sold at $630,000 in the 1991 recession.
There was a similar scenario at Melbourne’s next priciest offering when a $7.16m bid for a Middle Park house was not enough to secure an under-the-hammer sale.
The Edwardian home on Nimmo St, which had come with a $6.3m to $6.8m price guide, subsequently saw a sale negotiated at $7.2m through Greg Hocking of Jellis Craig.
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Sydney soars
Sydney’s top end is still strong, highlighted by the pre-auction sale of an Elamang Ave, Kirribilli waterfront, through Dave Gillan at Ray White who had been guiding $17m.
The 626sq m parcel – billed as one of the last remaining underdeveloped waterfronts with boating facilities on the lower north shore – last traded in 1992 at $2.03m.
Gillan brought forward negotiations to midweek with the price undisclosed but understood to be over $19m.
There was also the sale of Arden, the 1893 Cremorne Point trophy home, by receivers. No price disclosure but it last sold at $6m in 2019 and pre-auction the agents were advising $7.5m for the grand Bogota Ave manor.
The vendor was a company associated with the Southbank, Melbourne-based Prcstnt executive chairman Charles Hunting.
The residence was once owned by adman Wayne Kingston and wife Lisa and before that Rod McGeoch, chief of Sydney’s bid for the Olympic Games, and his wife, PR maven Deeta Colvin.
Sydney’s weekly auction activity exceeded 1000 for the first time this year, with 1020 homes, up 15 per cent on the prior week. With 855 results collected so far, 75 per cent recorded a successful result.
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Fashion statement
Harbourfront-bound fashionista Nick Kelly, co-founder of Industrie clothing, now seeks to ride the wave of strength in the Centennial Park market, with his offmarket listing of Lactura.
It’s the Lang Rd home bought in 2017 for $10.5m from the late TV executive, David Leckie and his wife Skye.
The home had traded at $2.5m in 1998.
The house is just doors away from last week’s $20m-plus record-setting purchase by Deborah Symond-O’Neil and Ned O’Neil, the son of Addenbrooke property developer Denis and interior designer Charlotte. Symond-O’Neil, founder of online fashion website Mode Sportif, is the daughter of John Symond.
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Stormin’ Norman
Brisbane saw a $3.8m sale in Norman Park, as its volume jumped 24 per cent and its clearance rate fell to 68 per cent.
The hilltop home was sold by Heath Williams and Sarah Hackett at Place Estate Agents. The 31 Waldo St home had its 615sq m space designed by architect Shaun Lockyer.
The bidding opened at $3.35m for the five-bedroom, three-bathroom house that last sold in December 2020 at $2.9m. The auctioneer Paul Curtain took a five minute break during which the top bidder increased their offer from $3.65m to $3.8m.
There was a $3.3m four-bedroom Linear Auchenflower apartment sale, after the 39/8 Dunmore Terrace listing had 56 buyer inspections.
There were four registered bidders, with three participating, “resulting in a great sale”, according to Matt Lancashire at Ray White. The whole 10th floor apartment, that came with 616sq m of space including 329sq m terracing, was sold to a local buyer who plans to do some renovations to the 2005 completed apartment.
It last sold at $1.97m off the plan in 2003.
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Two-bed cheapie
The Morton Bay region, just north of Brisbane, secured the nation’s cheapest auction sale when $240,000 was paid for a two-bedroom villa through LJ Hooker agent Liam Booker. The ground floor Kallangur villa had previously sold at $297,000 when completed in 2011. It was listed by a NSW investor who’d bought off the plan into the Hibiscus Lane complex in 2010.
Just two of the 14 resales in the 28 apartment complex have been higher than the purchase price, according to CoreLogic.
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Parliamentary push
Speaking of bearish markets, Professor Steve Keen, the controversial housing economist, is running for the Senate in the upcoming federal election. He’s set up a GoFundMe page for his candidacy on behalf of The New Liberals (TNL).
“Let’s bring ethics and reason into the Australian parliament,” the NSW-based candidate said. By early February, he’d had 26 donors contributing $2500, with hopes to raise $250,000, followed by six donors over the past fortnight taking the proceeds to $3600.
His housing policy seeks an end to “the irresponsible lending that has caused the housing bubble”
“I’ve spent 50 years of my life showing that Neoliberal ideas are wrong. And yet they’re still the only ideas that politicians consider. Since I’ve failed to get the ears of politicians, it’s time to get the voice of one instead.”
He also wants to reskill Australian manufacturing; take action on climate change that “appreciates the true magnitude of the threat we face”; set up a federal independent commission against corruption “with real teeth, to end the pork-barrelling”; and run a government that “properly funds public services like health and education”.
The party leader is Sydney barrister Victor Kline, who leads the Refugee Law Project, providing legal representation for asylum seekers.
Keen is long remembered for having lost a bet with then Macquarie Bank economist Rory Robertson over whether house prices would crash during the GFC. They didn’t, in part given the stimulatory spending of the Rudd-Swan government, so Keen had to walk up Mount Kosciuszko, having lost the bet.
