Sales fail as real estate wraps up for Christmas
There’s no Santa Claus rally for the property market this December as buyer fatigue took its toll on luxury residential listings.
There’s no Santa Claus rally for the property market this December. There were 14 luxury Sydney residential listings seeking $5m or more at weekend auctions, but the majority were withdrawn given the not-unexpected end-of-year buyer fatigue.
The dearest weekend listing at 45 Parriwi Rd, Mosman was pulled on auction-eve.
It has now been given a $13.5m price guide, having been initially listed with $16m hopes in August.
Overlooking Middle Harbour, the three-level abode had been redesigned by architect Nick Kent, with an 11.7m wide living area under a 3m high ceiling. Mosman Council records estimated the costs at $2.4m in 2017.
The next priciest weekend auction – the contemporary home of Andrea Abel van Ens and Rob van Ens at Manly – passed in on an $11m vendor bid.
The only buyer bid for the leasehold Bower St house with ocean views had been $9.3m.
Accordingly, Sydney’s top sale came when Michael Tringali at McGrath Estate Agents secured a $5.5m sale in Haberfield.
“The spectacular result for the vendors was $1.3m over reserve,” Tringali says.
The five-bedroom, two-bathroom Federation home is set on a 1106sq m corner block at 10 Denman Ave. It was listed after 76 years in McInerney family ownership.
A deep waterfront home in Sylvania Waters sold for $5.1m to an upgrading local.
The five-bedroom house at 26 Macintyre Cres had a $4.8m to $5.2m price guide.
Just two buyers competed for the 777sq m holding after bidding started at $4.8m, when auctioned through DJW Property’s Dave Watkins.
Clearance falling
The weekend saw a steady national preliminary clearance rate of 66 per cent.
But the final result of the prior week was revised down to 57 per cent, which was the lowest final clearance rate since the same week last December, which sat at 51.
Clearance rates have been drifting lower through the spring selling season, with the volume of auctions well above a year earlier, CoreLogic’s Tim Lawless says.
“This week there were 62 per cent more auctions held than at the same time last year, a clear demonstration that vendors are a lot more active.
“The same can’t be said about buying activity, with the major auction markets, Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra having seen clearance rates consistently below average.
“The spring and early summer selling season has seen buyers benefit from more choice, less urgency and greater leverage at the negotiation table.”
The trend through the past month suggests increasingly diverse conditions from city to city.
The pace of growth in housing values has slowed in Melbourne and Sydney, Lawless says.
Values were down 0.2 per cent in Melbourne and Sydney was unchanged while values continue to rise at more than 1 per cent month on month in Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane.
Elgin marvel
Melbourne’s top sale was $4.82m for 14 Elgin St, Hawthorn, through Stuart Evans and Chris Barrett at Marshall White Boroondara.
The five-bedroom, three-bathroom home, featured in Home Beautiful in 2016, sits behind its distinctive Hawthorn brick facade.
It last sold in 2017 for $4,005,000.
There was a $4.8m result at nearby Camberwell with the sale of the five-bedroom, three-bathroom home at 28 Derby St. Set on 1232sq m, the 1890 house was also sold by Marshall White.
There had been three Melbourne offerings with price guides of $5m or more set to go under the hammer, but none sold.
The priciest was a four-bedroom, four-bathroom, half-floor apartment in the west tower of the Southbank complex, The Melburnian.
It remains for sale with $6.375m to $7m price guidance through RT Edgar.
It has been listed by Deborah Charlton, the wife of Craig Charlton, the Humanforce Holdings director.
The St Kilda Rd offering was last sold for $5.4 in April 2021 by then Bank of Queensland chief financial officer Ewen Stafford, who had paid $3.5m in 2008.
Adelaide busy
Adelaide continued to have the strongest capital city auction success rate, recording a preliminary clearance rate of 81 per cent in its busiest week of the year with 199 scheduled auctions.
The top sale was a three-bedroom, one-bathroom house at Joslin, in Adelaide’s leafy northeast, which sold through Georgie Todd at Harris Real Estate for $2,285,000. The sandstone-fronted 1910 Fourth Ave house sits on a 1095sq m holding which last sold in 2021 for $1.7m.
Riverfront rejection
The luxury four-bedroom, four-bathroom Brisbane riverfront of Cassie Barbagallo, wife of millionaire medical entrepreneur Joseph Barbagallo failed to sell at its Sunday auction offering.
It was among the unusually high 125 Sunday offerings across the nation as vendors sought pre-Christmas sales.
It was passed in on a $6,275,000 vendor bid when offered by Patrick McKinnon at Place.
The bidding opened at $5.5m.
The four-bedroom, four-bathroom Fairfield home was purpose-built six years ago to handle a flood by veteran builder Greg Turner who had secured its $5,756,330 sale in July this year.
Located 4km from Brisbane CBD, the 1031sq m Brisbane Corso riverfront holding comes with pool, outdoor kitchen, a five-car garage, plus a drive-in workshop/garage, plus pontoon and boat ramp.
The Barbagallos’ former New Farm abode has been listed for rent at $3800 per week, after having come with $5.4m asking price for much of the year.
Christmas gamble
There are 115 vendors across the nation trying their luck at auction this coming Saturday, and just one chancing a Sunday Christmas Eve auction.
All up PropTrack economist Anne Flaherty is monitoring 708 auctions this week, with no significant volumes expected again until February.
The February auctions include the grand Lindfield offering, Lyncroft, which was pulled from Saturday auction.
Some March auctions are already appearing on realestate.com.au, including a Canberra listing of a 1927 estate set among a canopy of Spanish Oaks on Barkly Crescent, Forrest. The renovated residence with garden cottage sits on 2006sq m which has a $3,225,000 unimproved capital land value.
It has been listed through Sophie and Richard Luton of Luton Properties.
PPD agent Debbie Donnelley has listed a two-storey Bundeena beachfront house close to the Royal National Park, south of the Sydney. It has been listed by Dion Morrison and Charlotte Breen, whose family’s wealth came from sand mining in Sydney’s south. It is scheduled for March 16 auction, but surely will find its buyer well before then.
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