Weekly Market Update 17th December 2018
By | 17th Dec 18

All you need to know in the lead up to Christmas

Melbourne’s clearance rate recovered this weekend with the 53% clearance rate from 739 reported auctions and again there were quite a few auctions that were not reported.  With the lead up to Christmas, it was pretty much the last weekend of main auction activity. Though, there will still be quite a few properties that are to be auctioned this weekend so close to Christmas as vendors aim to get their properties sold before the festive season.

Investors have gone running though we saw some very strong investor activity this weekend with a number of boutique blocks of apartment auction.  These blocks always tend to a “WOW” factor and very strong appeal.  A block of apartments in Chomley Street, Prahran smashed its reserve by $400,000 and there were five investors battling it out to get their piece of blue chip Prahran real estate. 

There was also another strong auction result of a boutique block of Art Deco apartments in View Street Hawthorn which sold for $3.3 million with competition from a number of buyers.  This equated to a sale price of $825,000 per apartment which is again a very strong result.  Investors have gone running though they will buy property that ticks many of the boxes and has all the bells and whistles, as we saw with these two blocks of boutique apartments.

Melbourne’s economic growth is outpacing Sydney and helping to power the nation.  A new report has found Melbourne’s GDP grew by 4.3% in the past financial year compared to Sydney’s 3.1%.  The overall economy in Australia, and particularly in Melbourne is performing strongly.  Unemployment is at record lows and most experts are predicting that interest rates will not move at all next year and not until 2020 or beyond.  With interest rates on hold and unemployment solid and our population growth continuing, to be at record levels and it lays the foundation for Melbourne’s property market to have a soft landing and to recover and rebound in the coming years.