Melbourne's auction market ends year with clearance rate above 70 per cent

It was the final major auction weekend in Melbourne for 2019, with numbers finishing strongly a week-and-a-half before Christmas.

Melbourne’s preliminary clearance rate sat at 72 per cent on Sunday after 1226 auctions were held and 862 results reported.

The city’s results were strong, but below those of Sydney.

AMP Capital chief economist Shane Oliver said this was most probably due to a bigger number of properties for sale in Melbourne.

Mr Oliver said the number of sales and the clearance rate had bounced back – and were almost double those of December 2018 during the market downturn.

“Whichever way you look at it, clearance rates have held up … the spring selling season proved demand has held up,” Dr Oliver said.

While the outlook for the start of 2020 was good, the real test for Melbourne would be later in the year with the possibility of rising unemployment and a reviews of lending standards possibly having an impact.

“It looks like the market has a good head of steam built up for the first three months [of 2020],” Dr Oliver said.

At the weekend, the biggest results happened across the inner city, in the north, south and south-eastern suburbs.

One of the biggest results reported was a contemporary home at 3A St Martins Close, Kooyong. It sold for $2.99 million under the hammer – $440,000 above the reserve. 

Marshall White Stonnington director and auctioneer John Bongiorno said a family were the winning bidders, beating five others for the keys to the four-bedroom property.

With no heritage overlay, a 1930s home on 1140 square metres at 54 Osborne Avenue, Glen Iris, was snapped up by developers.

The four-bedroom home sold for $2,451,000, well above the $1.95 million reserve with five bidders pushing the price forward.

Likewise, a three-bedroom home at 88 Smith Street, South Melbourne, sold for $1.43 million, $230,000 above the reserve.

A couple snapped up the compact, two-storey property that had been fully renovated.

Mr Bongiorno said properties had been selling very well, with those that had previously passed in now selling.

“Private sales have been doing really well,” Mr Bongiorno said.

On Saturday afternoon, a compact home at 128 Brighton Street, Richmond, sold under the hammer for $1,695,000, above the price guide of $1.55 million to $1.65 million.

Biggin & Scott Richmond director Russell Cambridge said the property was barely five metres wide at the front, but this did not put off keen bidders.

While the local market had been a little hit and miss in the lead-up to Christmas, he said agents were getting called into assess more properties for sale in early 2020.

“It’s bubbling away,” Mr Cambridge said. “The bubbles are rising and we’re just waiting for it to hit the boil.”

In Mount Waverley, a family snapped up for $2.58 million a five-bedroom home at 13 Joy Street, which had a basketball court built in the backyard.

The court was a major selling point for families looking to buy, Ray White Mount Waverley area manager Jay Warnak said.

“One family interested in buying had a similar family home nearby, and they said the kids had been pestering them to build a basketball court,” Mr Warnak said.

Meanwhile, in the inner north, two properties sold for well above the reserve at auction.

A three-bedroom terrace at 36 Moor Street, Fitzroy, sold for $2.51 million – $130,000 above the reserve.

Nelson Alexander Fitzroy’s Arch Staver said two active bidders kept the price going during the non-referral auction (where the auctioneer does not refer back to the vendor for approval on price).

Mr Staver said the buyers were a couple moving from south of the Yarra to Fitzroy.

“They’re wanting substance, not the glitz,” Mr Staver said with a laugh.

A dilapidated property at 116 Clauscen Street, Fitzroy North, sold for $1,254,000 – well above the $900,000-$990,000 expectations.

Mr Staver said the property had been owned by the same family for decades before selling under the hammer.