Glory Alabama! The weekend was meant to be the first full indication of the direction 2011 is likely to proceed, yet those who anticipated a market with continued momentum have proved somewhat … premature.

Of the auctions held, a third failed to sell. The most noticeable features of the weekend, certainly at the upper end of the market, were reduced numbers of tyre kickers and lower crowd numbers.

We now face a few months of market interruptus – school holidays, Easter weekend, car races and other diversions – which have the effect of creating crescendo weekends when there are no other distractions. In those weekends, when there is much on offer, buyers are necessarily spread more thinly and that can lead to improved purchasing opportunities (none of which alters our caution that you should be ruled by quality before price and both before timing).

Hits …

• 7 Toorak Avenue, Toorak. Two bidders started at $2.2 million and the property was immediately on the market. The eventual celebrity purchaser bought it for $2.776 million – $3,324 per square metre and low by Toorak standards.
• 18 Kent Court, Toorak, on 484 square metres, sold for $2,240,000; equating to $4,628 per square metre. In this case, size did not matter.
• 35 Mason Street, Hawthorn, a smartly renovated double-fronted Victorian house on 725 square metres. Vigorous competition pushed it well over its expected “around $3 million” to an eventual sale at $3,450,000.
• 46 Illawarra Road, Hawthorn. Perched atop Scotch Hill, a very modern two-storey house on 623 square metres. Snapped up before auction at $4,250,000.
• 1/2 Jolimont Terrace, East Melbourne, a four room strata apartment, sold for $1,745,000.
• 18 Jolimont Terrace, East Melbourne, sold for $3 million.

And misses …

• 23 Lisson Grove, Hawthorn. A crowd of about 40 gathered for a dour affair: an opening bid of $3.5 million, a vendor bid of $3.6 million, then passed in with the reserve at $3.950 million. (The expectation last year was well in excess of $4 million.)
• 50 Hotham Street, East Melbourne, still remains for sale at $7.25 million after being passed in at auction late last year.

An interesting test of the premium end of the market will be 266 Danks Street, Middle Park. A substantial Queen Anne style house only a block from the beach, it was quietly on the market a couple of years ago and has now been re-offered. It is on a substantial 1,207 square metres, one of the single largest land holdings on the inner bayside.

Down on the Peninsula, things continue to waft along and will move slowly in to winter hibernation over the next three months.

So, what’s in store? Many of those who are hoping for a quick turnaround and a satisfactory result will be rewarded by no more than a cup of tea, a Bex and a good lie down. And, as always, there will be exceptions to all rules.

Christopher Koren

Morrelli phone-in

Now interstate fighting the good fight, but never without opinions, some notes on the weekend:

• Lots of spruikers on lots of pavements
• Many indifferent audiences
• Right house? Crowds of bidders
• Almost no right houses
• Atmosphere becoming etherial (no, not that, as in ether)
• Not yet duck season, but war declared between buyers and agents – vendors unaligned
• So few quality top end transactions that sentiment becomes impossible to judge
• Fewer agents with tax installment problems this quarter

David Morrell

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Bayside: Damian’s report held over

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What are you waiting for?

Sydney Morning Herald

It’s better to put your money in there because it’s tax free when you
sell,” another buyers’ agent, David Morrell of Morrell & Koren in
Melbourne, says. …

 

And so we begin, as every year, on the cliff-tops of Sorrento and Portsea.

Ilyuka, anyone? $28 million and the new owner is visible from the moon (watch the movie); but that was the exception. The rest of the cliff-top (forgive this) fell off the cliff.

Last summer two cliff-toppers went for auction with $6 million expectations and each had multiple bidders who took them past $8.5 million. This year, the flip side: The Sisters had hopes of seven numbers beginning with an eight and went a month later for a little over a six; a result near-replicated in a two-bidder auction further along the coast.

The rest of the holiday market? Think of a flat tyre.

And so 2011 is getting underway, but back in town it’s more like 2010 (cont’d). Little choice, less quality.

What’s also missing? Confidence. Sellers who won’t commit because they fear failure and buyers who won’t come to the party now because they fear that the market will go into decline around them. And the gloom is catching. You can see it in the agents’ eyes.

But …

Where there is quality – the one-in-twenty property – there’s no holding back. Off-market deals are being done in 24 hours … with no discounts.

Saturday?

Little quality, less choice and no real clue as to what the rest of the year may bring. Typically, properties passed in or sold to single bidders.

And then there are those who cannot help themselves. Those highest bidders who had properties passed in to them and rushed inside and agreed to a price that very same day – that’s not so much being taken to the cleaners as inviting them in. Who is advising these people? Would they go to court without a lawyer?

And then, the sideshows.

And now … for the heavyweight championship of the nature-strip…

A certain party from Marshall White vs. a contender from RT Edgar. A no-rounds stoush to decide who represents a buyer who was rumoured to be locked inside while the agents sorted things out.

Pardon? Agents arguing over who “owns” a buyer? Aren’t they supposed to be representing vendors?

Is this a taste of what’s to come? Little to sell and few to buy it adding fuel to the fires of agents’ competition? Could there be a reality show in this?

Enough.

We’ve had floods, fires and cyclones and now democracy may be breaking out in the Middle East while China waltzes with inflation. Should be an interesting year.

David Morrell

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Bayside: Damian’s report held over

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Real estate agencies’ ads misled buyers

Buyers advocate David Morrell said those penalties were too weak and did nothing to tackle a ”rampant problem” in the industry … The Age

Buyers’ market in Boroondara

David Morrell, of Morrell and Koren, said there were a lot of home owners
who had to sell. But he predicted early next year was going to be even
better for … Melbourne Leader