Melbourne auctions: St Kilda West house sells for $3.67 million at online auction
Melbourne recorded its highest number of online auctions at the weekend and its highest online auction success rate, despite a drop in the overall auction clearance rate.
It comes as the city battles through its second weekend of stage three lockdown due to a spike in COVID-19 cases.
Many auctions previously scheduled to be held in person had moved online in the past two weeks and many more had been withdrawn.
The preliminary clearance rate was 44.1 per cent after 483 scheduled auctions and 197 reported results. The rate included 193 withdrawn from auction.
There were 85 reported online auctions, 60 of which sold – a success rate of 71 per cent – which was the highest to date, Domain senior research analyst Nicola Powell said.
Dr Powell said the overall low clearance rate was skewed by the number of properties being withdrawn from auction.
“That’s not surprising. It’s the same trend we saw during the last lockdown,” she said. “The difference this time is the online auction success. It illustrates that Melbourne has warmed slightly to online auctions.”
But she said many of the properties auctioned yesterday would have been seen by buyers in the weeks before lockdown began, meaning they may have generated more interest than they would have during stage three restrictions.
“It will be interesting to see what happens in the coming weeks,” she said.
She said there was also a high number of properties being sold before auction – 112 reported sales – indicating sellers had low confidence in the current auction market.
One of the highest prices achieved at auction on Saturday was $3.67 million for a four-bedroom, two-bathroom house in St Kilda West.
The property at 8 York Street was on the market at $3.5 million, Marshall White Stonnington director John Bongiorno said, but the three hopeful buyers continued to bid at the online auction. A professional couple won the keys in the end.
Mr Bongiorno said the price was on par with what a similar house in the area would sell for in a “non-COVID” market.
He said although many properties that were scheduled to go to auction had been transferred to private sales or sale by set date, buyers “appreciate the transparency of online auctions”.
About 150 people tuned in for the online auction of a four-bedroom, three-bathroom house at 3 Harman Close, Doncaster East, which sold for $1.21 million – $60,000 more than the reserve price.
A large amount of interest was created in the first two weeks of the campaign, Philip Webb Doncaster agent Robert Groeneveld said, when public open-for-inspections could still be held before Melbourne’s stage three lockdown rules were implemented.
He said three of the seven registered bidders battled it out for 17 minutes and a couple with kids eventually won the keys to the coveted family home.
“It’s got access to parklands at the back, a rumpus room for the kids. It’s a real entertainer’s home,” he said.
A young family relocating from Gippsland paid $2,025,000 for a century-old Canterbury home – a bargain by Canterbury standards, agent Troy Rendle from Bell Property Balwyn said.
The three-bedroom house at 5 Chaucer Crescent was a deceased estate that needed some work, Mr Rendle said, making it much more affordable than other homes in the area that usually sold fore more than $3 million.
But the property still achieved $45,000 more than the top end of the asking price at the online auction.
“To get into Canterbury for around $2 million is really great buying,” Mr Rendle said.
In Essendon, a three-bedroom home sold for $1,177,000 after passing in at an online auction, Nelson Alexander Essendon agent Matthew Febey said.
He said the home at 12 Lincoln Road was initially on the market for private sale during the first lockdown, with an asking price of $1.2 million to $1.3 million. Two interested buyers – both in aviation and affected by COVID-19 – could no longer afford to buy.
The owner put the property on the market again, this time for auction, only for Melbourne’s second lockdown to thwart the change for an in-person auction, Mr Febey said.
He said there were four registered bidders for the online auction, at which the property passed in at $1.15 million. A young local family were the highest bidders, and they negotiated a sale after auction.
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