Buyers spoiled for choice at weekend
Almost 2000 properties to go under hammer, writes Rebecca DiNuzzo
Victoria is set to host its busiest auction week in years, off the back of another weekend of sizzling sales. Realestate.com.au expects 1940 homes to go under the hammer across the state this week — 1847 of those in Melbourne.
This is easily the highest weekly volume realestate.com.au has recorded since it started collecting auction data in January 2019.
The burst of activity will come before the market slows down for Easter the following week.
Melbourne notched a preliminary 88 per cent clearance rate from 920 results reported to realestate.com.au last week.
A total of 1307 properties went under the hammer — including an Aspendale home that became the third Melbourne property to exceed its reserve by more than $1m in a matter of weeks.
The four-bedroom beachfront property at 16 Bowman Street, dubbed the “crowning jewel” of the tightly held street, sold for an eyewatering $4.535m last Saturday: $1.085m beyond the vendors’ asking price.
The result followed the sales of 12 Farleigh Grove, Brighton, for $5.18m ($1.08m above reserve) and 62 Rose Street, Armadale, for $5.8m ($1.8m above reserve) in recent weeks.
The three-bedroom Elwood home of former Neighbours stars Jesse Rosenfeld and Lana Meltzer was another big seller last week.
Rosenfeld played Marco
Silvani in the hit Aussie television show, while Meltzer also held roles in Home and Away and Winners & Losers.
RT Edgar Elwood agent
James Meldrum said four bidders battled it out for the Victorian home at 20 Moore Street.
They placed about 20 bids that ultimately carried it more than $200,000 beyond reserve to a $2.66m sale price.
The property — featuring high ceilings and ornamental fireplaces — came complete with a permit and plans for a modern extension.
Mr Meldrum said the buyer was “very impressed” by the plans, and the vendors were “rapt” he planned to move ahead with their vision and build the extension.
The agent said the local market was booming, but more listings were needed.
“Good real estate is strong,” he said.
“People genuinely want to move, people genuinely want to buy — it’s not just filled with people just scoping the market.
“They’ve been looking for 12 months (during COVID-19) and they’re out there wanting to move.”
Ray White Cheltenham director Kevin Chokshi said his agency’s sales last weekend offered further evidence the market was “red hot”.
Mr Chokshi notably sold a three-bedroom townhouse at 85 Latrobe Street, Cheltenham, for $1.1m on Saturday to a young Elwood couple.
They paid $30,000 beyond the reserve.
He said the normalisation of working from home during COVID-19 had allowed the couple to search for homes further from the inner city compared with before the pandemic.
“Cheltenham was a bit further away from the CBD than they wanted,” he said.
“But they fell in love with the property and the lifestyle.
“And with working from home, the property worked for them.”