Melbourne Auction Market Improves

16 Feb 2012 - Stacey Moseley from http://rebonline.com.au

Melbourne has recorded the strongest results under the hammer in this weekend’s auctions.

Auction figures released by Australian Property Monitors (APM) found, 69.6 per cent of the properties listed for auction in Melbourne cleared over the weekend. This equates to an 8.2 per cent increase from the same time last year.

“This is a modest improvement on last year’s results, however the outcome of auctions over the coming two weekends will provide a clearer indication of the state of the market,” Real Estate Institute of Victoria (REIV) CEO Enzo Raimondo said.

Auction figures released by the Real Estate Institute of Victoria (REIV) showed there was a total of 276 auctions on the weekend, of which 181 sold and 95 were passed in, 60 of those on a vendor's bid. This equated to an auction clearance rate of 66 per cent, just under the result recorded by APM.

According to Mr Raimondo there are 1500 auctions scheduled between now and the end of February in Victoria.

Barry Plant Group saw the benefits of the slowly recovering Melbourne real estate market recording positive hammer-down results on six out of its ten listed properties.

The Northern suburbs of Melbourne  showed the market was alive and kicking where a nail-biting auction at 36 Whitely  Parade in Taylor's Lakes saw seven determined bidders going above and beyond the reserve of $580,00 to make $718,500.

The most expensive property sold over the weekend across the four major cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide was a three bedroom townhouse in Kirribilli NSW, which went under the hammer for $1.71 million.

A three bedroom house located in Terrigal, on the north coast of NSW took the title of the weekend’s most affordable property, selling for $109,500.

Adelaide and Brisbane both recorded increases from last year, with clearance rates of 50 per cent and 30 per cent respectively. Sydney however experienced a decrease with just 86 of the 141 properties up for auction selling, giving the city a 51.1 per cent clearance rate.