Weekly Market Update 18 February 2019
By | 18th Feb 19

Your weekly update by Frank Valentic

Melbourne’s property market looks like it's recovering slightly this year as the clearance rates have improved over the first few weekends.  The clearance rate has increased this week to 56% from 451 auctions.  There were some solid results including a house in Yarraville which ended up selling $241,000 above reserve in Stephen Street Yarraville as four bidders pushed hard.

On the negative side, a developer lost lots of money with two Prahran houses where they ended up selling them for a combined loss of $1,275,000 on Dandenong Road.  He sold one on the weekend and lost $561,150 and the property next door sold at a loss of $713,850 last year. 

Another strong result in the current market a former Domain boss Antony Catalano purchased a lavish off-the-plan St Kilda penthouse for $30m. It easily beat Melbourne’s previous $25m benchmark set in 2015 by penthouse in Southbank’s Aust 108 building.

One of the biggest hand brakes affecting the Melbourne property market is that many investors have deserted the market place. Investor lending was down by 42% last month and it’s dropped well below the peak levels of investors in early 2017. Also, owner occupier’s loans dipped by 8% during the last month.