Melbourne is going through a very interesting time with property prices. The available data is 3-6 months old and is not representative of what is happening in the market now, the data is telling us what happened earlier this year. For buyers it is very difficult to get an accurate handle on what a property is worth today or what the buyer interest is. Most of the current commentary is about the now, and is from estate agents that have a very limited window of experience, that is most are specialists in a particular area of the city and are really only qualified to comment on their area, not to mention the potential for the old vested interest comment to come forward.
If you are looking for advice on buying make sure you talk to many people from many different areas and if you are looking at a particular location talk to the expert in that area who doesn’t have a biased opinion. Where do you find that?
High lights of the weekend. An overall clearance rate of 65% but volumes were significantly down on the same time last year, about 21.5% and still the overall market is subdued. What is going to happen in spring when more volume is on offer?
There were some bright lights. 15 Lovell Street East Hawthorn, an older un-renovated Californian bungalow, saw a very strong result of $2.120 million or $2,378 a square meter. This was always going to be a good performer with it location to good schools and transport.
7 Lawes Street Hawthorn sold for $938,000, being marketed for the second time by a new agent after the original got it wrong. Originally looking for in excess of a $1.0 million and last year this might have happened but not now. Single fronted homes are becoming more difficult to shift in Hawthorn and Malvern as the young professionals are becoming more cautious.
8/17 Sorrett Avernue Malvern, a great location but a property with a somewhat flawed layout and an enormous tree failed to attract any attention and was passed in on a vendors bid of $950,000. Great location but this home didn’t have the right ingredient to attract a buyer this week.
Camberwell was particularly lack lustre this weekend with 6 results reported and 5 passed in and across a range of property styles from 450k-1.5 million.
If you move out 20km from the CBD then things start to get really tough and we are now seeing agents reverting back to the old pre 90’s ways of private sales rather than auctions in outer suburban locations.
It is a market where the good properties sell well and the not so good languish on the side lines waiting for that unsuspecting buyer to come along and make some vendors or agents day.
David McMillan
Domain Property Advocates
www.domainadvocates.com.au
