Fact vs. footy

Morrell and Koren, the 1st buyer's advocates

The siren sounds. The players run on to the field. The crowd’s roar … can barely be heard.

Where is the crowd?

[pullquote] …their lungs and legs ain’t what they used to be.”[/pullquote]Players wander, waiting for the bounce. And what players: the new kids – seen little and know it all; the old stagers – know every trick in the book and need to because their lungs and legs ain’t what they used to be; the plotters and strategists – creating plays no-one understands (including, sometimes hilariously, themselves).

What a grand old game it is!

Waiting for the bounce.

Waiting.

Waiting.

Something’s missing. No men in white. No-one to bounce the ball. The crowd (all three) starts a slow clap.

At last there’s movement from the umpire’s race.  The consumer’s champions – the arbiters of fairness – are on their way!

They’re here!

The umpires wander on, making their way toward … where exactly? Blinded by the light. The opposing captains exchange a shrug and bounce the ball themselves. Unless a player runs into one, this game will proceed umpire-free.

And that’s how the big game is played today in Melbourne. Real Estate Rules is mostly no rules and the players make it up as they go. Desperate times and desperate measures.

Super Saturday? Worked for some, but there was no roaring crowd at the top end. Under $5 million with a realistic price had supporters, but above that the silence near-deafened.

Anxieties. Sellers and agents facing three weeks on the bench after Easter – and longer for the top end teams. Deal now or deal with uncertainty for another month.

And so to the match report …

A staggering off-market play: 35 Stonnington Place. An overseas buyer goes for a $6.25 million screamer, rising well above a pack that couldn’t see why. Two agents claim the credit. Huh?

A quiet goal is kicked at 11 Moralla Road. Original expectation was over $6 million and it just sneaks past the post at a shade over $5.5 – which is about right.

4 Grandview Grove, Prahran, is taken by three bidders to $4.57 million. Much hyped, but not the $5 million they were chasing last year.

14 Lysterville Avenue, Malvern. Quoted at $2.8 million, sold for $3,591,000. Quote Of The Year winner so soon in the season?

Off the field …

  • some failed expressions of interest have succeeded in extra time … but only after their prices were brought back under the salary cap
  • several sales made with no agent in sight – portent of things to come?

And still there are agents who are playing entire games in their heads: “Yes, we’ve got an offer.” “Yes, it’s in writing.” And the pretence continues even in the face of stark, stark reality. Extraordinary.

David Morrell

Sun shines in Bayside

A big week for the end of the first half of the Autumn season. Some ups, some downs, but eventually more up than down; although the jury is still out at the very pointy end.

The sense is that, despite the naysayers, the economy is in a sufficient state of health to encourage buyers to spend. The flurry of the past week may be as a result of building confidence and a little bit of one-in-all-in, or it may simply be a reflection of nothing much else to choose from. There few new listings for most of April and May is still a big question mark at this stage.

And so the sun shone over Bayside: 70% clearance rate over the weekend and smiles everywhere you looked.

OK. Not quite everywhere.

Beaumaris and Black Rock continued their march to a different drummer: just one property sold from the ten auctioned.

6 Love Street in Black Rock was the solitary success. An eight room brick veneer on a generous 1047 sq m, it sold for a respectable $2,220,000 – proving it can be done.

Of the rest, 424 Beach Road, Beaumaris topped the pass-ins at $2,350,000 and a later offer of $2.4 million was still not enough to reach a reserve still shrouded in mystery.

The Bentleighs bounced. The highest clearance rate in recent memory: almost 85%. Just three pass-ins from eighteen auctions.

Top of the heap were 2/79 Brewer Road at $1,105,000 and 4 and 6 Matthews Road at $1,100,000

Hampton and Sandringham had a 75% clearance with nine from twelve plus a handful of private sales.

The Brighton twins had an extraordinary 28 auctions, so their 70% clearance rate is still impressive.

Top billing goes to an older style single level house on 930 sq m with two street frontages at 29 Cosham Street. It was passed in with two bidders at $2.85 million and following some nimble footwork by the auctioneer it sold for $3,033,000.

Just across Nepean Highway, a Victorian mansion at 1 Clive Street was scheduled to be auctioned but was sold during the week for, the local chatter says, about $2,750,000 – something of a discount to its previous sale three years ago at almost $3 million.

57 North Road, on the corner of Foote Street, is something of a local landmark; even on its modest 633 sq m. Bidding started on the vendor’s equally modest $1.75 million and it eventually sold for $2,020,000. The smile on the buyer’s face suggests the Easter Bunny came early.

Among those the Bunny passed by was the renovated period house on 960 sq m at 727 Hampton Street. There was a lonely vendor bid of $2 million, later equalled by a genuine offer, but a reserve of $2,250,000 suggests it will be a while before that egg is cracked.

5 Tynefield Court passed in at $1,850,000. There has been a later offer of $1,900,000 but that is apparently not near enough to an unpublished reserve.

3/7 Grantham Court passed in $1,700,000. There’s been a later offer of $1,830,000 but that reserve, too, remains a secret.

And a couple of private sales that were cleaned up during the week:

And we’ll be back after the Easter and school holiday break.

Damian Taylor

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