Weekly Market Update by Frank Valentic
By | 29th Oct 18

29th October 2018

The Block Auction Finale

Melbourne passed it's real first Super Saturday test with a 52% clearance rate from over 1,600 auctions.  Most experts and property commentators expected the clearance rate to drop below 40% as there was only a clearance rate of 50% from 780 auctions last weekend but Melbourne passed its Super Saturday test.

We had a busy day at The Block auctions bidding on our 10th Block auction series in a row and we bid on all five apartments without any luck or success on the day. We missed out for our investor and downsizer clients and now have bid on 35 of 45 Block properties and remain with seven purchases. It is always important to stick to your budget and not get carried away with the hype of The Block auctions and make sure we walk away when we reach our auction limits and budgets as the bank will only value the property at fair market value.  

It was an interesting day as the auction orders were flipped around on Friday as a number of penthouse buyers pulled out. The order usually has the most popular properties first and that would have been the penthouses followed by Kerrie and Spence, Hayden and Sara and then Courtney and Hans. The last minute changes were made as a few penthouse buyers dropped off. Kerrie and Spence and Hayden and Sara were give the best positions in the auction order as they had a larger pool of buyers at the start of The Block auctions.  The pool always drops off as buyers purchase and there are less buyers later as we saw. There was only myself and one other bidder in the last auction compared to five to six bidders at the start of the day.

The Penthouse contestants were disappointed because they were severely disadvantaged with the order and Sara and Hayden were given the win on a plate as the auction order gave them a really big advantage. They would have never won The Block if the order was as originally planned. After taking hundreds of buyers through, there was very consistent feedback that Bianca and Carla and Kerrie and Spence should be fighting it out for the crown. Norm and Jess just behind and Hayden and Sara and Courtney and Hans were predicted to hold the last positions.  So they were very lucky that there was a last-minute change in auction order.

In another interesting development, the sisters that sold the Gatwick Hotel purchased the last apartment and have told a colleague of mine that they would be providing accommodation to 20 disadvantaged people. So, the old Gatwick could be returning to the new Gatwick! This will be disappointing news to the buyers that have just spent around $3 million dollars to live in a luxury complex and may have crime, sex workers and drugs problems the previous Gatwick Hotel had to deal with.

My buyers are happy that they didn’t purchase after they had heard this rumour and it will be a nightmare to be the chosen Owners Corporation if they are dealing with some of the old Gatwick issues.

So, it was an interesting and tough day at the office again and we look forward to maybe being involved in our 11th series at The Oslo Backpackers Hostel unless this veteran Buyer’s Advocate hangs up his paddle after his ten series in the row. We worked really hard over the last two and half months, showing hundreds of buyers through in a tough market which takes time away from your normal business and family time.  It might be just time to hang the paddle up and give some of the younger Buyer’s Advocates a chance to shine!  We will see how we feel once next series of The Block starts.