Welcome back to the 2021 Melbourne property market.

What a difference Christmas and New Year can make to media sentiment. The doom and gloom being reported by the media for much of 2020 has now been replaced with positivity and talk of the strength and resilience of the Melbourne market.

With limited holiday opportunities, buyers have been eager to inspect the stock and many of Saturday’s open for inspection were greeted by long queues of hopeful buyers, some returning to continue their search and others out for their first inspections.

Stock levels, however, remain low. Although the unofficial opening of the market is not until next weekend (after the Australia Day holiday), our early conversations with agents suggest that there could be fewer homes again than normal for this time of year.

We expect to see more of the following:

• Return of the traditional three week (four Saturday) auction campaigns, rather than zoom auctions.
• More scheduled open for inspection times, rather than private appointments.
• Good competition for homes that are ready to move in (no work required).
• Good homes selling quickly, possibly before auction or closing dates.
• Off market properties volumes remaining at similar levels.
• Vendors wanting above market prices are still likely to find it harder to sell.

Saturday 27 February is shaping up to be the first high volume auction weekend for the year, which should provide a guide leading into Easter. What happens beyond Easter may depend on any future Covid-19 outbreaks, consumer confidence as JobKeeper/JobSeeker payments finalise and any changes to stock levels.

For the moment, though, the most important thing a buyer can do is be prepared so that if the right property does present, you don’t miss the opportunity to buy it.

Some of the better properties coming up for auction; an architect’s view

57 Mary Street Hawthorn – Cameron Ingram/Bruce Bonnett, Nelson Alexander

8 Kerferd Street Hampton – Peter Hickey/Sam Harrison, Buxton