‘Separate the fluff from the genuine buyers’: The pros and cons of Canberra’s public holiday auctions

As we approach public holiday season, Canberrans will be packing their bags and embarking on road trips elsewhere. From soaking their toes in the sandy beaches of Sydney or the South Coast or visiting family interstate, the absence of many will be felt, particularly at auctions.

This weekend, as Canberra celebrates Canberra Day, there will be only 27 auctions on Saturday. Last Saturday, there were 65 auctions. In Melbourne and Sydney, there were 1380 and 911 auctions, respectively.

Canberra usually has 11 public holidays in a year but the ACT government announced an extra day for Anzac Day in 2020, declaring that the Monday following Anzac Day on April 27 will also be a public holiday.

According to Domain data, the recent Australia Day long weekend saw only one house go under the hammer, withdrawn from auction with only one registered bidder. The first weekend of auctions for the year started the week prior, which saw two houses scheduled and one successfully selling in a fierce and competitive bidding war.

Alexander Smout of Belle Property Kingston said there are both pros and cons to holding auctions over long weekend.

“It really separates the fluff from the genuine buyers,” he said.

“If someone sees a house throughout the campaign and they are genuinely interested in it, they’ll turn up regardless … [and] do whatever it takes to get it.”

Smout noted that while the headcount to open homes and auctions would see a short fall, the competition for the property would still be high.

Domain data revealed that during the Labour Day weekend last year, there were only nine scheduled auctions on Saturday compared to 42 the prior Saturday and 66 the following Saturday.

The Labour Day weekend in 2018 saw 36 scheduled auctions on Saturday, compared to 99 the previous Saturday and 61 the Saturday after.

Over the Anzac Day weekend last year, there were only 16 scheduled auctions on Saturday, compared to 59 the previous Saturday and 37 the following week. 

Scheduled auctions also dropped during the Anzac Day weekend in 2018 with 31 scheduled auctions on Saturday, compared to 61 the previous Saturday and 80 the following Saturday.

Smout said he was planning an auction campaign which would fall on the Easter long weekend, however, “we brought that forward to have it earlier in the week rather than Good Friday”.

“You always want a big crowd there with a lot of neighbours because not only does it look like there is interest in the house and in the neighbourhood, but you want to have the auction that everyone attends,” he said.

“Whenever you have the opportunity to plan for it, you would want to avoid those weekends particularly because … there won’t be much crowd support and people will be away for the long weekends.”

Smout added that some people would register at auctions “just to see how it goes”, and if the auction is within an affordable range for them, they would bid.

“[However], when they book weekends away, they won’t turn up [to auctions],” he said.

“Only genuine buyers would be there because they have strong intentions to buy and that separates them from people who are just testing the market.”