Strong start for 2021 early-bird house sales
The early bird January auctions have kicked off with a stronger sales success rate than the tail end of last year.
The early bird January auctions have kicked off with a stronger sales success rate than the tail end of last year. Finding a willing bunch of buyers was no great surprise, as it’s the season when new buyers join those who frustratingly missed out last spring.
But beating last December was a big task since it had among the best clearance rates of the much disrupted 2020.
SQM Research auction analyst Louis Christopher noted the weekend auction volumes were double the same Saturday last year and the auction clearance rates, when finalised, would be higher than those that finished off the property year in 2020.
“It’s a strong opening to 2021,” he said, adding that the weekend saw a wide spread of auction activity across both major auction cities, Melbourne and Sydney.
“The normal high concentration levels of auctions in the inner cities that we normally see were not there yesterday,” he said. “Instead, the majority of auctions occurred in the middle and outer rings, with higher than normal levels in the satellite regions such as the NSW Central Coast and Mornington Peninsula.”
Demand for freestanding houses remains strong in outer areas, he noted, suggesting the properties offered the capacity to work from home in comfort and at some relative affordability.
The high volumes continue with SQM calculating a 647 catch-up auction tally for Melbourne, up on 371 on the same Saturday last February. The uptick is not as clear for Sydney with 463 in the week ahead, compared to the 420 same week last year.
Melbourne ahead
Melbourne narrowly outperformed Sydney at weekend auctions, despite its busier auction calendar, which traditionally begins on the Saturday after Australia Day.
There were 235 weekend results across Victoria, with realestate.com.au reporting an 84 per cent success rate. NSW saw an 83 per cent success rate from 179 results.
Canberra had the highest success rate at 88 per cent, from 34 results while Adelaide was the next strongest market on 85 per cent from 33 results.
Adelaide had the nation’s cheapest sale, when a one-bedroom 1950s house fetched $293,000 at Semaphore Park.
The Fairford Terrace offering offered through Ouwens Casserly had last sold in 2007 at $210,000, according to CoreLogic. The marketing agent Samantha Hirniak advised there was a “quirkiness” to the 56sq m home.
Queensland was the state with the weakest result, with 53 per cent sold from 68 results.
Kensington castle
The nation’s top reported sale was in Sydney’s Kensington at $5.13m when a four-bedroom, two-bathroom home sold through Ballard Property agents James Ball and Mark Lowe.
Just two bidders competed keenly for the Milroy Avenue home, last traded in 2010 at $3.15m. Over its previous 11-year ownership period, between 1999 and 2010, it had rocketed from $800,000, possibly boosted by sizeable renovations.
Balwyn knockdown
Melbourne’s top recorded sale was at Balwyn, when $2.56m was paid for a likely knockdown.
The 2 Dundee Street offering had been listed with a $2.2m to $2.4m price guide.
The four-bedroom single storey home sits on a 948sq m holding, with the Jellis Craig marketing suggesting consideration could be given to a brand new home.
A one-bedroom Box Hill apartment was Melbourne’s cheapest sale.
The Rose St apartment fetched $302,000 through Jeff Anderson at Ross-Hunt Real Estate, who had given a $290,000 to $319,000 guide.
The top floor, 1970-built apartment, with 46sq m internal space, had last sold in 1984 at $41,800.
There were two bidders, with a local outbid by a young couple who bought it for their mother/mother-in-law to live in.
“She hasn’t even seen it and is not aware of the purchase as they wanted to surprise her,” Anderson advised Competing Bids post-auction.
Portsea’s priciest
Registrations are being taken for the private mid-February executors’ auction of a 4400sq m Portsea clifftop offering, Mevagissey.
Some $15m to $16.5m is expected by the Sotheby’s Peninsula agents Rob Curtain and Danielle Vains.
The Franklin Road holding has been in the Wallace Smith family for seven decades since their stockbroking forebears paid £4600 in 1950 to the Cornfoot family.
It will be Portsea’s priciest sale this summer, with Curtain thinking it is likely to become a family compound since its spans three titles.
Montagna moving on
The retired St Kilda AFL star Leigh “Joey” Montagna and wife Erinn have listed Byrona, their Albert Park home.
It’s been a renovation project for the two-time all Australian, who paid $1.24m in 2011.
Marshall White Port Phillip agents Nicholas Hoo and Oliver Bruce have a $1.75m to $1.85m guide for its February 13 auction.
The 1900 Kerferd Road home, set behind its white-picket fence and classic Victorian facade, has two bedrooms on the ground level, both with open fireplaces.
The upstairs master suite is complete with walk-in wardrobe and ensuite.
Montagna, who ducked across the road for a latte at Fat Albert to wait out Saturday’s open-for-inspection, and Erinn have a two-year-old son, Noah.
Making the Leap
The Darling Point-based Leap legal software executive chair Richard Hugo-Hamman has his Coalcliff weekender for February 13 auction.
The Illawarra Coast sale will prompt him to buy another property better located to allow him to see his Brisbane-based son’s family and Sydney-based daughter’s family during 2021 and its potential lockdowns. He expects to buy somewhere on the NSW Mid North Coast.
Ray White Helensburgh agents Mattias Samuelsson and Simon Beaufils have given a mid-$3m price guide. They had 200 inquiries within the first 24 hours.
Hugo-Hamman bought it for $3.35m in 2017 from the departing Premier Investments boss Mark McInnes, whose work has been Melbourne-based since joining Solly Lew’s Premier Investments in 2011. McInnes lives in Toorak and retains a Mornington Peninsula holiday home with wife Lisa Kelly at Sorrento that cost $2.7m 2013, although they were spotted last month holidaying at Noosa. He was looking tanned doing the Hell’s Gates walk.
Gold Coast shines
The Smorgon steel family has listed its penthouse in the Waratah complex at Main Beach on the Gold Coast. The 1995 apartment was last traded for $2.375m in 2000 when bought by Minnie Smorgon and her late husband Sam.
The penthouse on Montgomery Ave has two large luxury living areas and a formal dining zone spread across 758sq m, with its rooftop featuring a pool, spa and sauna.
Duncan Longmore of Kollosche Prestige Property will put it to February 21 auction.
It’s peak sales season on the Gold Coast, where prices are buoyant. A sixth floor sub-penthouse in the luxury Main Beach block, Sea, fetched $6.3m this month through Robert Graham at Ray White, some $800,000 higher than just eight months ago. The whole floor apartment spans 365sq m.
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