It feels like the dying hours at the wedding of the year. The bride and groom are long gone. The headaches have begun to pound among those with no homes to go to. A few of the party boys (OK, the estate agents) are still moving to music they blearily remember but the band, too, has packed up and left and there’s no-one who’s willing to dance any more.
Yes, it?s boring! Yes, it?s not going to change until after the school holiday period at least and yes, there is very little choice out there.
Got $10 million and nowhere to rest your head? Sorry. Nothing going.
Those we know are waiting it out in warm places north or up there where there’s a hope of snow.
The little that’s happening is hardly news. More like evidence of what people must do when the top-end choices are so slim.
22 Glyndebourne Avenue, Toorak had three bidders and sold at a lack-of-choice led price of $3,170,000.
5A Muir Street, Hawthorn also went for $3,170,000 ? a strong price for a townhouse.
2 Hawthorn Grove, Hawthorn, a great address with a good 5-bedroom house with pool; but on the south side. The owners wanted $2.8 million, there was an opening bid of $2.2 million, the owners replied with a bid of $2.5 million. Against that kind of competition (bidding against themselves) it was taken up to $2.65 million. (Daddy, why would you do that?) No matter, half an hour after it was passed in they raised their bid another $100,000 and clinched it. If you did the shopping that way, you’d come home with the supermarket.
And still there are some left wilting on the vine: 5 Crestmont Court, Toorak was passed in on a vendor bid of $4.5 million and the vendors wanted $4.9 million. It’s now being offered at $4.4 million. Or offer. Brows (agents and vendors?) furrowed at 50 paces?
As for the expressions of (dis)interest campaigns of the last six weeks? Far from proving to be the groovy new way to sell, in most cases they?re still waiting for more expression than a raised eyebrow.
With school holidays starting next week and with most of our clients preferring the warmer climates or the snow, your correspondent is also heading off. There is little point waiting around for the market to heat up when the gas has been turned off. See you in July!
Newsflash ? our Franchise is up and running in Brighton. The Fin Review nailed it here
Bayside still has hangover from the long weekend?
Brighton auctions continued to sputter: five results from 13 offerings; a 38% return against a somewhat improved Melbourne total of 67%.
It’s the bemused versus the confused: buyers stymied by too-ambitious vendor bids followed by auctioneers’ consternation when real bids do not eventuate. You have to ask what some of them are thinking.
Auctions will continue to fail if agents do not embrace bidders by accepting what may seem to them to be a lower start than desirable; but at least then they will get a start and quite possibly a result.
Of the handful of sales, 14 Halifax Street (cnr Well Street) a 7-room brick home on 800 sq m brought $2,010,000.
45 Halifax Street a timber period home on over 900 sq m was sold prior to auction for $2,225,000.
23 Yuille Street, on about 670 sq m, was passed in after one real bid at $2,100,000 and sold later for a figure closer to $2,200,000.
4 Talofa Avenue in East Brighton, a clever new home on 600 sq m (but not in the better part of the suburb) received an offer of $2,100,000 after being passed in at auction but are sticking to their guns at $2,350,000.
95 Dendy Street was passed in three weeks ago with an initial reserve of $2,800,000 and was sold during the week for $2,501,000. Gulp.
Hampton and Sandringham fared better: six sales from seven auctions.
48 Abbott Street, Sandringham, a 6-room period timber home on 612 sq m sold before auction for $1,475,000
Black Rock, Beaumaris and Mentone between them managed four sales from six auctions. Much quieter than that it does not get.
And the winner? Bentleigh (again). The star performer in recent months had nine sales from 14 auctions and provided some reasonable buying opportunities for first home buyers in the general Bayside area.
Your guess is as good as …
4 Bendigo Street, Hampton, a renovated timber and iron roofed period home on average land was reported as having sold at auction for $2,900,000 over the weekend. Could this be the same 4 Bendigo Street, Hampton, which was passed in on a vendor bid of $2.7 million two weeks ago? Clerical error or an agent wishing to improve his reported strike rate? (Regardless, our view that for $2.9 million there should have been an oil well out the back still stands.)
With school holidays looming at the end of the month and a dearth of listings, it is time for buyers to be patient, to seek out value and those properties that come onto the market below the radar.
And, yes, Morrell & Koren Bayside is now very much open for biz. You can reach Damian Taylor on 0418 326 496