Depth of demand at biggest auction weekend

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This was published 14 years ago

Depth of demand at biggest auction weekend

By Kate Nancarrow

AN AUCTION market that can absorb almost 900 properties as well as push the clearance rate to a three-week high is clearly a market with depth of demand, as bidders who missed out at the weekend's auctions must know.

The biggest auction weekend - wedged between the year's first interest rate rise and the looming certainty of another - produced a clearance rate of 82 per cent from 882 auctions.

It showed how far the market has rebounded since last year's meltdown, when the clearance rate was barely 50 per cent and multiple bidders, now the norm, were rare.

But the weekend's stellar performance showed some patchy results, with several $2 million-plus Brighton and Toorak properties passed in.

''It's not as heady as it seems,'' said buyer's advocate David Morrell, of Morrell and Koren. ''It's very property-specific and even some deceased estates are being passed in.''

In Bentleigh, Buxton's Craig Williamson saw the risks buyers face when trying to save money in a rising market.

The agency auctioned a well-renovated, brick Californian bungalow at 12 Cairnes Grove that was passed in to a buyer's advocate for $1.1 million; the advocate offered $25,000 more after auction but would not add another $25,000 to meet the vendor's reserve of $1.15 million, Mr Williamson said.

The property was then offered to all who had attended the auction.

A woman ''who'd just seen it for the first time offered the reserve and bought the house immediately'', Mr Williamson said.

In Carlton North, WBP Property Group valuer Adrian Christie saw a slow auction at 526 Canning Street. The well-renovated two-bedroom house was passed in at $830,000 but eventually sold for $865,000.

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Bennison Mackinnon's Elliot Gill saw the St Kilda East market in action at the auction of a double-storey house at 1 Penny Lane. It had three bidders and sold for $1,170,000. ''We'd had about 100 groups through it,'' he said.

Hocking Stuart sold 89 from 107 properties, while Jellis Craig sold 39 from 46 properties.

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