Melbourne auction market passes record September test with flying colours

The robust Melbourne home auction market produced more top results for most sellers despite a record number of pre-Grand Final Super Saturday auctions

Melbourne reported a robust clearance rate of 75.7 per cent at the weekend which was nearly identical to the 76.0 percent recorded over the previous weekend but below the 79.6 per cent reported over the same weekend last year.

Auction numbers typically surged on Saturday with sellers keen to avoid the distractions of the next weekend’s Grand-Final long weekend and the commencement of school holidays. The weekends Super Saturday offerings were the highest ever recorded by the local market for a September Saturday.

1160 auctions were listed on Saturday which was higher than the 1059 auctioned the previous weekend and sharply higher than the 952 listed over the same Super Saturday weekend last year.  Auction numbers will be predictably sharply down next weekend with just over 40 homes set to go under the hammer.

Melbourne’s booming outer suburbs continue to lead the pack with more strong results at the weekend. Top performer was the west with a remarkable 87.4 per cent from an avalanche of 175 reported auctions followed by the south east with 84.2 per cent, the north 82.1 per cent, the north east 77.0 per cent, the outer east 75.7 per cent, the inner city 73.2 per cent, the inner south 72.7 per cent and the inner east well below and lower again this weekend with 64.4 per cent.

Notable sales reported at the weekend included a  3  bedroom home at 29 Fairmount  Road Hawthorn East sold for  $3,600,000 by Marshall White, another  3  bedroom home at 1/19 Wallace  Avenue Toorak sold by Kay and Burton for  $3,155,000, a  4  bedroom home at 15 Tyne  Street Camberwell sold for  $2,850,000 by Jellis Craig, another  4  bedroom home at 2 Nyorie  Court Ivanhoe sold for  $2,800,000 by Nelson Alexander and a  3  bedroom home at 104 Nimmo  Street Middle Park sold by Parkinson for  $2,800,000.

The most expensive property reported sold at auction was a  4  bedroom unit at 18/21 Marine  Parade St Kilda sold for  $3,610,000 by Wilson Agents. The most affordable property reported sold at the weekend was a  1  bedroom unit at 14/6 Garnet  Street Brunswick sold for  $250,000 by Brad Teal.

For a list of Melbourne auction results click here Melbourne auction results Saturday September 23

Melbourne recorded a median auction price of $800,000 on Saturday which was lower than the $881,000 reported over the previous weekend and 6.9 per cent higher than the $748,500 recorded over the same weekend last year. A total of $486.8m was reported sold at auction in Melbourne at the weekend.

Residential investor activity has declined sharply in VIC as recently tighter lending conditions have clearly impacted most housing markets.

Latest data from the ABS reported that VIC approved residential investor loans to the value of $3.2b over July which was a dramatic decline of 21.2 per cent compared to the previous month’s total. July’s VIC total however was 3.6 per cent higher than that recorded by the local market over July last year.

Although investor lending in VIC fell steeply over July, loans to this group to the value of $23.5bn were approved over the first seven months of this year which is a solid increase of 13.0 per cent compared to the same period last year.

Nearly all states recorded sharp declines in loans to residential investors over July clearly reflecting the impact of restrictive lending practices recently introduced by banks as a response to policy initiatives by APRA the financial regulator.

Andrew Wilson is Domain Group Chief Economist Twitter@DocAndrewWilson join on LinkedIn and Facebook at MyHousingMarket