How Melbourne's surprise biggest auction week could change market
Melbourne's auction market is on the cusp of generational change as the city prepares for one of its busiest starts to winter on record.
Yesterday Victoria tackled the bulk of its busiest week under the hammer since spring last year, with a whopping 1477 homes slated to test the market.
PropTrack figures show an initial clearance rate at 70.3 per cent from 1038 result was recorded, with a Toorak home at 34 Balmerino Ave setting the pace with a $6.11m sale that topped the market.
Economist Anne Flaherty said as the third similarly strong result in as many weeks, it was a positive sign that lower interest rates and growing investor activity would keep sellers celebrating as winter kicked off.
Next week a Kings Birthday public holiday on Monday has cut expected auctions to just 500.
But the following week is forecast to host more than 1000, a buoyant number historically reserved for spring.
Real Estate Institute of Victoria president Jacob Caine said while this weekend had been boosted by being exactly four weeks after the federal election, which had delayed many sellers from listing homes for sale, continued high numbers and clearance rates suggested the city's auction market was changing — and winter might not be the no go zone it once had been.
'We might need to adjust our expectations around when we will see peaks and troughs of auctions throughout the year,' Mr Caine said.
While he said he believed buyers might still have a 'moment of opportunity' a market that was quickly swinging in sellers' favour was expected to have numbers boosted by both interest rate cuts that were driving sellers to believe there would be more buyers with deep pockets.
'Real estate agents have been having conversations with a lot of owners planning to capitalise on the interest rate cut on the assumption that it will translate into more buyers with more buying power,' Mr Caine said.
'I think there is still a slight advantage for buyers … there's still a moment of opportunity, especially for first-home buyers, before things swing back to the sellers-market trend we have had for most of the past 15 years.'
Yesterday's top results included a four-bedroom house at 34 Balmerino Ave, Toorak, at $6.11m, followed by 42 Bruce St, Toorak, which sold for $6.1m.
15 Latham St, Ivanhoe, address snared a $5.32m result to round out the top three results.
But not all of the top end listings were so successful.
A Kew address that was slated for auction at 1.30pm had $10.5m-$11.5m hopes leading up to it going under the hammer.
The 1-3 Sackville St home is now listed for private sale with a $12m asking price.
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