We’ve been saying it all year: the top end is going underground. Off-market. Out of sight. When you’re looking above $3 million you are less and less likely to find what you are looking for among estate agents’ listings. And the higher you go, the lower your chances.
The Fin Review reported on it today and even some agents are now owning up.
It’s The Trend.
(And there are off-market activities we would love to tell you about, but…)
Then there’s one we had nothing to do with: Toorak’s perennial wallflower, 1 Towers Road. Sold at last, apparently in the low 20’s, to a … local!
Expats with money nowhere to be seen. Again. And an illustration that many massive attempts to lure expats home can be massive wasted efforts.
Tide stays in
Predictions of 30% price drops remain in force. Maybe forever.
Do predictions have expiry dates?
What has been limiting sales – head and shoulders above any other reason – is plain old lack of choice. People won’t sell when there is so little they want to buy. Especially now that minds are turning to snow and places that speak with accents.
Warmer in lower climes
Come down a notch and the mood changes.
- 148 Kooyong Road was a cheap 5-bedroom Toorak entry point. Sold in a show of six hands for $2,692,000
- 1 Norman Avenue, South Yarra Another cheap entry. Four hands pushed it to $2,715,000
- 25 Irving Road, Toorak Good spot. Nothing house. Not a hand in sight and passed in just shy of $4 million with a message to the vendor.
- Land as litmus: 33 Valetta Street, Malvern Sold four years ago for $1,520,000. Sold again on Saturday for $1,660,000. Paper profit, but not for the vendors.
Walking planks
Departing backs at one high-profile agency. Are they jumping or being pushed?
It’s a changing, closed-door market. Spruikers and braggers not required.
Truly Rooly
Overheard: “I sold it to an expat for $4.5 million.”
Reality: Different agent, different agency. Bought by a local for $3.65 million.
That smell? Another burning reputation.
David Morrell
Bayside: little to report
… so we won’t.
Damian Taylor
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