Melbourne property sellers still well on top on spring super Saturday auction day

The robust Melbourne home auction market produced an another unequivocally good result for sellers at the weekend, despite the spring super Saturday surge in listings. 

Melbourne reported a clearance rate of 77.5 per cent on Saturday, which was just below the 78.7 per cent recorded the previous weekend, but again well ahead of the 66.2 per cent recorded over the same weekend last year.

Melbourne sellers had plenty of competition and buyers more choice on Saturday, with 1366 homes listed to go under the hammer – the second-highest weekend offering this year behind the pre-Easter super Saturday of 1598 auctions, recorded on March 19. Saturday’s auction numbers, however, remained well below last year’s all-time record of 1622 recorded over the same weekend.

The Melbourne auction market is set to remain highly active over December, with well over 3000 homes likely to go under the hammer before Christmas.

Melbourne’s suburban regions continue to spread the load evenly, recording a reasonable consistency of clearance rates yet again at the weekend.

The inner south put in another leading performance, with the top clearance rate of 83.6 per cent, and the highest number of sales at 143. This was followed by the north-east, which was strong again at 81.8 per cent, the west with 80.3 per cent, the outer east with 79.8 per cent, the south-east with 79.6 per cent, the north with 74.7 per cent, the inner east with 74.5 per cent and the inner city with a clearance rate of 71.5 per cent.

Notable sales reported at the weekend included:

• a three-bedroom home at 126 Heath Street, Port Melbourne, sold by Greg Hocking for $3,705,000;
• a four-bedroom home at 44 Denbigh Road, Armadale, sold for $3,625,000;
• a four-bedroom home at 2 Rothesay Avenue, Brighton, sold by Jellis Craig for $3.58 million by Marshall White;
• a three-bedroom home at 7 Wilson Street, Brighton, sold for $3.55 million by Nick Johnstone;
• a three-bedroom home at 4 Mercer Road, Armadale, sold by Marshall White for $3,512,500.

The most expensive property reported sold at auction was a four-bedroom home at 17 Bell Street, Fitzroy, which sold for $4,011,000 by Nelson Alexander. The most affordable property reported sold at the weekend was a one-bedroom home at 29 Ralph Avenue, St Albans, which sold for $275,000 by YPA EA.

For a list of Melbourne auction results click here.

Melbourne recorded a median auction price of $856,000 on Saturday, just below the $860,000 reported the previous weekend, but 13.4 per cent higher than the $755,000 recorded over the same weekend last year. A total of $695.1 million was reported sold at auction in Melbourne at the weekend.

Melbourne first home buyers continue to make a solid contribution to housing market activity. The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data reports the number of home loans approved for first home buyers in Victoria over September increased 1.4 per cent over the month to 2217.

Over the first nine months of this year, Victorian first home buyer loans have increased by a healthy 3.2 per cent compared to the same period last year. The average first home buyer loan increased by 3.2 over the month to a record $325,100.

First home buyer loans accounted for 10.5 per cent of all lending for residential purchases in Victoria, but remained well below the long-term market share average of 17 per cent.

Dr Andrew Wilson is Domain Group chief economist Twitter@DocAndrewWilson join on LinkedIn