Aug 31: It’s official: Sky not limit.

The law of gravity has been repealed, what goes up stays there and it’s 120 days to Christmas.

OK, it’s Melbourne in Spring.

We, as advocates, spend a lot of time clenching our fists and squeezing our eyes closed and willing, willing , willing a crack to open in the market and for prices to come tumbling down.

Hasn’t worked.

There are more powerful spells being cast: scarcity, subsidy, insulation (especially for some at the top end) from downturns.

And so the choice available and the numbers of transactions have been rising week-on-week; and with those, illogically, the prices.

As we have argued before, the bedrock of all real estate is the value placed on the land beneath it; and that is soaring:

  • Malvern: Two months ago you would have said $320-330 a foot in Haverbrack Avenue was as high as it could go. Today? Think $375.
  • $550/foot in Sargood Street, Toorak? You’re having a lend (probably a big one if you bought it). Three months ago what went at the weekend for $3,870,000 would more likely have cost you around $2.4 million. Bring on gravity.
  • $430+/foot in Chastleton Avenue, Toorak. Chastleton Avenue? No way. But do the sums: 7,000 square feet, $3,020,000 …

And then, back in the real world …

And some which sold about where we think they should have:

  • 25 Glassford Street, Armadale. A period home in need of work, it sold for $3,584,000 (they have been trying to get $4 million for it privately for some time).
  • 12 Grandview Grove, Prahran. A 2 storey Victorian which sold off-market for $4 million within 24 hours of being placed on the market. A fair price, but when so many are  soaring so far above fair, you have to wonder what it may have gone for if the vendor had waited for an auction.

There’s also an increasing number of private sales; especially properties which have failed to sell for some time. Toorak alone had five kast week.

And then there are boardroom auctions – which we have been promoting to sort wheat from chaff, reality from emotion – which are becoming more common. But three in as many nights? Each two weeks ahead of a scheduled auction and bringing as many as four bidders to the table. No drawn out going once, twice, etc, here; and no place for the faint-hearted. It can all be over in 10 seconds.

What’s in store? The yearly build of pre-Christmas anxiety and desire for a hearth next to which can stand the Christmas tree. The whiff of agents’ newly dry-cleaned Armani’s, their suffocating clouds of cologne. The smell of cheque books in the air.

David Morrell

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Bayside: $1 million plus …

Damian is away. Here’s a taste of what he’s missing.

Beaumaris

Bentleigh

Black Rock

Brighton

Brighton East

Hampton

Sandringham

M&K in the news:

Rulings sought on late bids – The Age – But another buyer’s advocate, David Morrell, said auctioneers brought the problem of late bidding on themselves because they took too long to knock the …

Something to say? Your comments are welcome. Click on ?Comments? below.

Visit the Morrell and Koren website

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