Auctions out of favour with agents

05 Jul 2011 - Real Estate Business

With auction clearance rates flat across most markets, real estate professionals believe vendors should be looking to sell their property through private treaty.

According to the latest Real Estate Business straw poll just over 64 per cent of the 322 respondents believe private treaty to be the most effective sales strategy in the current market.

However, Starr Partner’s chief executive Douglas Driscoll said agents should not completely reject auctions based on recent clearance figures.

“I think it is important for anyone who studies auction clearance rates and attempts to compare them to last year’s activity, need to understand the market was artificially high,” Mr Driscoll said.

“Twelve months ago agents weren’t selling properties, people were buying them, and now we are seeing a correction occur in the market place."

"Despite popular opinion today’s market is still a very healthy, we are seeing strong buyer demand brought on by a lack of available stock, so the fundamentals for auction are certainly there.”

These comments were largely echoed by Australian property Monitor’s senior economist Andrew Wilson.

Late last week Mr Wilson told Real Estate Business, in many instances, properties which don’t sell at auction in the current market, are selling soon after.

“I think in most markets given the shortage of supply, we can expect to see auction results begin to pick up over the longer term with strong competition between buyers and the numbers of available stock.”