Melbourne market resumes at full pace as prices rise

The strong Melbourne home auction market will resume at full pace this Saturday following last weekend’s break in activity due the Labour Day holiday.

Over 1200 homes are scheduled to go under the hammer at the weekend which will be predictably well ahead last Saturdays holiday impacted total of just 258 auctions.

Although auction numbers will surge, this weekend’s listings will be well below the 1598 auctions conducted over the pre-Easter Super Saturday on the same weekend last year. With continuing high levels of demand, this weekend’s return to normal will however be welcomed by buyers.

The west suburban region will yet again host the most number of auctions on Saturday with 191 followed by the north east 176, the inner south 174, the inner city 170, the outer east 149, the inner east  142, the north 96 and the south east with 79 auctions listed on the weekend.

The most popular suburb for auctions this weekend in Melbourne is Reservoir with 22 followed by Prahran 20, Glen Waverley 19, St Kilda 18, Kew 17 and Preston, East Bentleigh and Epping each with   15 auctions on Saturday.

Strong home auction activity will translate into higher prices generally in the Melbourne housing market. Latest Domain Group report reveals a February median asking price for private sale houses at $625,000 which was an increase of 9.6 per cent compared to February last year.

February asking prices for private sale units in Melbourne however increased by just 1.9 per cent over the year to a median of $453,525.

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