Auction sales in need of a boost

Hopes the impending spring auction season will fire up sales made under the hammer

AS we move through the final month of winter, local agencies are gearing up for their spring auction campaigns. Hopefully they will help to reinvigorate what has become a lacklustre part of the market since the start of the year.

Aside from a reduction in the number of auctions being held, clearance rates have been on a steady decline from the heady highs during Covid, when sales under the hammer topped out at 90 per cent.

Clearances rates have struggled to reach even half that recently, hovering at about 30 per cent.

Of the 71 auctions that took place last week, 33 properties passed in, while 12 were withdrawn from sale altogether. A week earlier and the figures were similar.

In a more stabilised market, which is what the Gold Coast is now settling into, agent opinions are divided over whether an auction is the best way to sell a home.

Many maintain they leave sellers open to the risk of not achieving their desired price, while others say it is the best way to determine a property’s true market value.

With the RBA raising the base rate again this week by 0.5 percentage points, we may see some other trends emerge.

If the upward trajectory of rates and inflation continue, fewer buyers may find themselves in a position to compete under auction conditions, which may lead to a spike in the number of properties selling after auction.

This was the case with international jeweller John Calleija’s Beach House on Ephraim Island, which sold two days after it went under the hammer.

It was bought by a couple who were already residents of the island and who attended the auction but didn’t bid because they needed a longer settlement.

The $4.05m sale, was penned a few days later by co-marketing agents Daniel Sharp of Kollosche and Shaun Kaddatz of Harcourts Coastal.

A property that did sell under the hammer last weekend was 2/45 Petrel Ave, Mermaid Beach, marketed by Connor Malan and Dan Donovan of Ray White Mermaid Beach.

The new boutique villa, with a plunge pool, which is a short 250m stroll from the beach, sold for $2.15m.

The Beach House at 13 Ephraim Island was sold under the hammer last week.