Market Update 17th March 2020
By Advantage Property | 17th Mar 20
The Melbourne auction clearance rate has hit a three-year high as it is now averaging 73% after it dropped to as low as 39% in late 2018. Melbourne and Sydney continue to be the strongest markets and have the highest clearance rates and property prices have hit an all-time high. The market is experiencing some nerves due to the Coronavirus but it passed its first Coronavirus test with flying colours on the weekend. We have already seen that numbers attending opens have dropped by around 15% and a number of our clients have cancelled their sales campaigns or are not going ahead with sales as they are nervous about the impact of the Coronavirus.
Though we still saw some very strong bidding at auctions that we attended over the weekend including a Hawthorn unit which sold for $46,000 above reserve and two Preston houses sold for $60,000 and $70,000 above reserve respectivlely with 6 bidders each. There were also six bidders who fought it out for a South Yarra house, pushing past the reserve by a whopping $195,000.
We were excited again to see our client achieve an excellent result for a townhouse in High Street, Malvern that sold for $1,206,000 which was $31,000 over reserve. We had purchased the whole block of townhouses in 2013 through our Group Blocks Strategy for $650,000 each. We were delighted as it was purchased for a First Home Buyer back then and now they have a second child on the way and are upsizing. They have almost doubled their money in a 6 year period and are moving into their next phase of their life cycle.