February 18, 2017

The road ahead for 2017 is looking strong: Andrew Gibbons (Marshall White) at 24 Percy St, Hawthorn.

Saturday’s auction results did not disappoint expectations of most vendors. At 6pm Saturday, the REIV reporting a 78% clearance rate on the 846 auctions held. Only 78 passed in with no bidding (around 10%).

Of the properties we saw auctioned on the weekend, those that passed in generally had:

  • No obvious renovation solutions, or tricky floor plans
  • Compromised positions (i.e. near commercial building etc)
  • Vendors who thought their properties were worth more than the buyers did

Auction Highlights:

Single storey homes close to amenities and properties that ticked boxes for a variety of buyer groups (including younger families and particularly downsizers) saw continued strong results, such as:

  • 5 Church Street, Beaumaris (Kate Fowler/Jon Read, Marshall White) – approx. five years old, a single storey home with good garaging on compact block only a few homes from shopping village – sold before auction for an undisclosed amount above $1.8m
  • 36 Morang Road, Hawthorn (Hamish Tostevin/Andrew Gibbons, Marshall White) – single fronted, single storey home with good garaging close to train – sold for an undisclosed amount above $1.8m
  • 25 Black Street, Brighton (Nick Johnstone/Alan McGillivray, Nick Johnstone Real Estate) – all bedrooms upstairs, but north rear and moments to Church Street – $3.365m

Well positioned, good-quality family homes also attracted strong interest:

  • 3 Huntingfield Road, Brighton (Chris Carrington/Nick Johnstone, Nick Johnstone Real Estate) – large family home with pool and basement – $4m
  • 8 Currajong Avenue, Camberwell (Duane Wolowiec/Stuart Evans, Marshall White) large family home, good bedroom separation on approx. 840sqm – $3.4m

And then there were some that just sold strongly:

  • 4 Victoria Avenue, Canterbury, on approx. 935sqm (Richard Winneke/Chris Daly, Jellis Craig) – sold just under $2.7m in August 2013, sold again on Saturday for $4.2m
  • 8b Hodder Street, Brighton East (Ben Vieth/Lambros Bollas, Buxton) – new townhouse – $2.32m

‘Land’ Sales:

  • 25 McDonald Street, Beaumaris (Tom Grieve/Tim Kourtaibe, Ray White) – 783sqm (approx.), south rear, opposite school – $1.52m or $1,941sqm
  • 19 Avenue Athol, Canterbury – (Alastair Craig/Mark Josem, Jellis Craig) – approx. 785sqm, a fairly substantial home advertised as land or a major renovation (stca) – $3.33m or $4,203sqm
  • 78 Mills Street, Hampton (Jenny Dwyer/Stephen Tickell, Hocking Stuart – approx. 613sqm, south rear with a home that needs renovation or maybe replacement – $1.825m or $2,977sqm
  • 7 St Ninians Road, Brighton (Richard McKinnon/Stephen Smith, Marshall White) – approx. 719sqm, corner block in the ‘Golden Mile’ – over $5.5m or over $7,500sqm
  • 23 Warner Avenue, Ashburton (David Macmillan/Chris Gillon, Jellis Craig) – 660sqm near the park – $1.755m or $2,659sqm
  • 17 Arthur Avenue, Brighton (David Hart/Tom Davidson, Buxton) – approx. 614sqm, sold before auction  $2.62m or $4,267sqm

 

Off Market Properties:

Off-market offerings are still quite prevalent – here are just some we have been privy to this week:

  • Land in Middle Camberwell – nearly 800sqm – $2.4-2.5m
  • Toorak single level period home – 3 bedroom vicinity of $2.5m
  • Edwardian family home Canterbury, $2.9-3.0m
  • Windsor new townhouse – above $1.35m
  • Updated Victorian in Kew with off street car-parking – $1.7m
  • Boutique apartment, close to shops & beach – Brighton – circa $2m
  • Modern townhouse – North Brighton – circa $2m

Auction Spotlights:

36 Morang Road, Hawthorn

A lot of pre-auction interest and a big crowd on the day here saw a big result, with this property sold under the hammer (Hamish Tostevin, Marshall White).

We attended the first open for inspection for this property some weeks ago and there were about 60 other ‘groups’ with us. That was an early indicator that this property was going to be well received, and it sure was on auction day. Hamish Tostevin mentioned to the 100-strong crowd in his preamble that he had sold about 15 properties in Morang Road (which was an interesting insight, I thought – it is hard to buy that kind of experience) and buyers couldn’t really go wrong here. The auction kicked off with a crowd bid of $1.4m, and clipped along nicely, being announced on the market at $1.53m. Bidding climbed and climbed and eventually sold under the hammer to the original bidder for a very, very strong $1.845m. Four bidders in all took part in here, mostly downsizers. The keys here? Location, single-level floor plan and easy access to a car garage at the rear. Of course, good agent work and marketing too helps … the vendor should be very happy.

52 Manning Road Malvern East

Daniel Wheeler from Marshall White orchestrated a successful auction at 52 Manning Road Malvern East.

52 Manning Road is a beautifully presented Art Deco property for either young families or downsizers and attracted plenty of the latter on auction day. Daniel Wheeler from Marshall White espoused the great location close to shops/cafes, schools, public transport and parks to inspire the good-sized crowd. Although shy at first, requiring an opening vendor bid of $1.6m, three bidders soon stepped in to push the price past the $1.85m reserve and to a solid result at $1.99m.

Properties we like, scheduled for auction March 4

31 Mathoura Road Toorak – Oliver Booth/Jeremy Fox – RT Edgar

96 Hambleton Street Middle Park – Nicholas Hoo/Oliver Bruce – Marshall White

22 Leura Grove Hawthorn East – John Morrisby/Sally Morrison – Jellis Craig

15 Whyte Street Brighton – Barb Gregory/Jason Collie – Marshall White

Agent Opinion: ‘With the strong results at the end of last year, are vendor expectations even higher now in early 2017?’

Duane Wolowiec, Marshall White: With the first ‘real’ auction weekend gone, it seems that vendors are dealing OK with market expectations at the minute.

That said, if vendors see a ‘runaway’ result they can get pretty encouraged by that and it is important often to put that into context.

In the areas I specialise in, vendors acknowledge that there will always be demand for quality properties and at present there is still a lack of supply of those.