Auctions markets fire up on Super Saturday

Super Saturday didn’t disappoint today with the leading property group selling 73 per cent of all properties booked for auction under the hammer with many top sales recorded across Australia.

The Ray White Group had 600 auctions booked across Australia today, the highest volume on offer since pre-COVID in March, with 5.5 average registered bidders and bidding on 92 per cent of all stock nationally.

Ray White data shows our sellers received 11.1 per cent more on average on auction day by selling under the hammer than selling prior to today.

With 146 auctions alone in Sydney today, Ray White NSW Chief Auctioneer Alex Pattaro said he had never seen such a strong market. Ray White’s Sydney members cleared 75 per cent today under the hammer.

“I personally called 10 auctions today, which is a record for even me, and I have lost my voice. The average number of registered bidders is sitting at 5.5 people per auction and 75 per cent of properties changed hands under the hammer today,” Mr Pattaro said.

“I don’t want to sound like the Grinch but it almost feels like Christmas is getting in the way as so many buyers want to transact now but stock levels are easing off a bit,” he said.

“So many buyers still want to secure a property before Christmas. I would advise anyone thinking of selling early in the new year to list now as we are expecting a flurry of new listings in the second week of January.

“Why wait until 2021? The level of buyer inquiry now is unprecedented so why would you wait until there is more competition for buyers to choose from. Everyone is home this summer and there’s never been a better time to sell.”

Ray White Randwick | Bondi Junction Partner Sam Capra today orchestrated the standout auction of the day when he sold 1/160 Beach St, Coogee for $2.685 million at auction, a whopping $625,000 or 26.3 per cent over reserve.

The picture postcard iconic location, just 150m from the famous Coogee Beach, attracted “every downsizer in Sydney”.

In front of a crowd of more than 100 people including 12 registered bidders, Mr Capra sold the unit to a neighbour who was looking for an investment property.

“My vendor had never lived in it, it’s always been rented out, and he’s retiring and over the moon now. With the second bid it hit the reserve of just over $2 million,” he said.

“This was a very unique unit in a boutique block of only nine with secure parking for two cars which is coveted around here,” Mr Capra said.

“What a spot! Such an iconic location and there’s just not enough stock like it, especially in this area.”

Ray White Surry Hills agent Nathan Briggs today sold 6 Sebastopol St, Enmore under the hammer after four registered bidders pushed the price to $1.72 million.

“It was a great auction with three very active bidders, all locals and the buyers who won the keys recently sold in Waterloo. My seller is downsizing and moving to the coast, which has been a definite theme of 2020 as lots of sellers are moving out of the inner city for a tree-change or sea-change,” Mr Briggs said.

“We are finishing the year on a high note. There’s definitely some heat in this market and more buyers than sellers.”

After 62 years in the same family, Ray White Punchbowl agent John Yatman today sold 27 Septimus Ave, Punchbowl for $887,000.

There were 13 registered bidders, mostly locals all vying for the home, and the winning bidder was a man who lives in the next street over who will rent it out as an investment property. His 93 year old vendor has moved into care and her sons (pictured above with John Yatman) were overjoyed with the result.

“It happens all the time, your best buyer is often a neighbour. We ran a three week campaign and took some 34 groups through. All 13 bidders were people I knew in my database and they are all active buyers. There is not enough stock but we are setting up for the new year with a lot of new listings.”

Ray White Victoria and Tasmania CEO Stephen Dullens said buyers hit the streets on a beautiful Melbourne day as results once again exceeded sellers expectations.

“With 2020 rapidly coming to a close and selling days running out, buyers were out in force looking to secure their new properties with less than two weeks until Christmas,” Mr Dullens said.

“Ray White recorded a preliminary clearance rate of 79 per cent across Victoria this week from over 140 auctions conducted – volumes getting close to auction numbers last year.

“With Ray White auctions in Victoria being conducted right up until December 23 and commencing again from January 7, this is likely to be a different December and January for the real estate industry compared to previous years.

“While the days until Christmas rapidly diminish, there is no doubt the current strong conditions will see activity run later and start again earlier in 2021.”

It was a Super Saturday in Melbourne as the city recorded its highest volume of weekend auctions since March earlier this year with 115 booked to go under the hammer. Ray White members reported record results where reserves were smashed and records were made today.

Coming in $300,000 above reserve was the under the hammer sale of 76 Alfrieda St (pictured above) in St Albans. The developer’s dream block sold for $1.7 million through Ray White St Albans principal Shaun Marijanovic and agent Minh Tran.

The bidding started off slowly but as the price approached $1.450 million, six registered bidders of the gathered 11 decided to give it their all.

“At $1,450,000 the bidding became more feverish and eventually hit $1.7 million and sold to an owner occupier who is planning to also use the house for her hairdressing business,” Mr Marijanovic said.

“The market is almost back to pre-COVID days but there is a shortage of quality stock on the market, especially for developers and first home buyers, so this is really driving competition, leading to some great results for sellers.

“The outlook for next year is really positive as long as the market doesn’t get flooded. There seems to be a lot of people holding back for next year but I have been telling sellers to come to market as soon as possible because the buyers are definitely out there.”

Meanwhile, Rene Mawad in Ferntree Gully was busy breaking his own record of the highest residential sale in the suburb this morning.

Mr Mawad sold 19a Myrtle Cres (pictured above) for $1,291,000 – $41,000 above reserve. The Ferntree Gully agent previously held the record for his sale of 15 Mont Albert Rd in October that sold for $1.2 million. The record had not been topped since July 2018.

There were eight registered bidders with half actively participating but it was a young couple with two kids who came out on top. The couple had been looking since before March and said they were relieved they could finally have their weekends back.

Mr Mawad now has auctions booked right through January and is excited to see what the market brings in 2021.

“This sale and the success we’ve all seen tells me that buyers have realised property is where their money is safest during uncertain times,” Mr Mawad said.

“Vendors are beginning to catch on that the market is hot and that prices haven’t been affected by this year but it’s clear that buyers are still going to be competitive as ever going into the new year.”

The Ray White Cheltenham office finished the year with a bang selling five of five properties under the hammer. The standout was 1/2 Parkside St, Beaumaris which sold for $1,065,200 and well above reserve to local downsizers (pictured above) through Ray White Cheltenham’s Kevin Chokshi.

Mr Chokshi also sold 5B Charles St, Cheltenham for $980,000, with all five registered bidders actively participating, for $50,000 above reserve. The successful buyers were a local couple, one half from Australia and the other a New Zealand expat. Another standout was 2/20 Patty St, Mentone that went for $695,000 with three active bidders after the auction began at $590,000.

“We are thrilled with the results, it was a great outcome and shows that the outlook for next year is really good,” Mr Chokshi said.

“I think the heat will continue, we are already set to launch a few more properties for January auctions and we don’t plan to slow down over Christmas. We want to capitalise on the momentum in the marketplace and keep going hard.”

Ray White Queensland Chief Auctioneer Mitch Peereboom said it’s been an excellent day of auctions wrapping up what’s been a great week for the leading network.

“The number of registrations in terms of average registered bidders has remained consistent and that’s going through to some excellent clearance rates and we’re seeing some outstanding prices as a direct result of the competition,” Mr Peereboom said.

“As we look forward to now and Christmas, we know that we’ve certainly got a number of auctions coming up with our auction volume up some 20 per cent on this time last year.

“This is certainly showing that sellers are taking advantage of the market conditions and that’s going to be flowing through right up until auctions into Christmas which then sets us up for a strong start to 2021.”

From L-R: Ray White Wilston Principal Alistair Macmillan, Ray White Auctioneer Phil Parker and Ray White Wilston Sales Associate Sam Hagen.

The 28 registered bidders at the auction of 43 Clifton St, Wilston today meant business. As a crowd gathered in the front yard of the Wilston property, it only took Ray White Auctioneer Phil Parker 15 minutes to usher in new owners.

The bidding opened at $1.2 million from a young couple. It then shot off from there to the reserve of $1.3 million then a few minutes later sold for $1.5 million through Ray White Wilston Principal Alistair Macmillan and sales associate Sam Hagen.

A local family claimed the keys to the home after some decisive bidding and are thrilled to have their forever home. They now plan to begin renovations.

“We need more space and we’ve been keeping an eye out around here for a property just like this that we can renovate and live in for a long time,” the buyers said.

“The good thing about buying through auction is you know that you aren’t bidding against yourself. It’s transparent and you can see what the interest levels are.

“There’s just nothing worse than going back and forth with offers and not knowing where you stand.”

Mr Macmillan said the sale was the second highest recorded on the street and the most recent sale of a similar home in the area was $1,250,000 and was sold off market.

“This has proved that auction is the way to go to achieve premium prices and I wouldn’t recommend selling off-market because you don’t know if you have got the best price possible,” Mr Macmillan said.

“I’ve been doing this for a while and the market is as good as it gets in Brisbane. I’ve never seen it as strong – there’s just so much demand and really low stock levels creating some fierce competition.”

The four week auction campaign foreshadowed such an impressive result with 175 buyers inspecting the Wilston home.

Over in the western suburbs, Ray White Graceville | Sherwood agent Georgia Pevy sold the beautifully renovated five bedroom house at 5 Sandon St, Graceville for $1.340 million to a family from Calamvale who were looking to get close to some of Brisbane’s best schools for their two young children.

The seller and award-winning developer Muhammad Sabdia of Sabdia Constructions said he was very passionate about designing beautiful and functional residential homes. He founded his business in 2014 and completes about 15 new home builds each year.

“I bought the original house from Georgia a year ago and we renovated the property and subdivided the block and we’ve started building next door. I love designing functional spaces. Finding the right block in these tightly held suburbs is always the challenge,” Mr Sabdia said. With a background in multi storey high rise projects, the developer now focuses on boutique residential and large scale commercial projects across Brisbane.

Ray White Graceville | Sherwood principal Cameron Crouch (pictured above left, with auctioneer Mitch Peereboom) said today’s auction attracted expat bidders and locals too.

“We are definitely finding the supply of stock is not keeping up with the demand from buyers. Today there were seven registered bidders, some locals and expats in Sri Lanka,” Mr Crouch said.

“Today’s winning buyer was from the southside of Brisbane but we have sold a fair few properties in the last few months to expats in Singapore and Hong Kong. Many of these are people who generally knew the area from when they were growing up and are looking to move home.

“This has been a year of re-evaluation for a lot of people and we expect the momentum to continue into 2021.”

Ray White South Australia Chief Auctioneer John Morris (pictured above knocking down the sale) said today’s date 12.12.2020 might seem ominous but it had proven to be auspicious for many vendors who chose to take their property to auction this weekend with some great results today under the hammer.

“We are following on from a great week of auctions last week where we had 90 per cent of all auctions with bidding, close to a 70 per cent clearance rate and 5.4 average registered bidders per auctions in South Australia,” Mr Morris said.

“We have 72 auctions this weekend and 23 of them are Ray White giving us a 32 per cent market share in South Australia. We are finishing off the year off with a bang. The year 2020 has been a wild ride but let’s look forward to 2021 and getting back to a bit of normality.”

Ray White Norwood agent Reece Pilgrim just sold 40a Shelley St, Firle for $689,500 to local Ben Kurtze (pictured above), who fended off six other registered bidders during the exciting auction. This was the first ever listing and auction sale for the ambitious young rookie sales executive who has now hit the ground running.

During the three week campaign Mr Pilgrim took more than 60 groups through the house, and attracted seven registered bidders and four of them had a go. “All the bidders were locals. The auction opened at $450,000 and moved with spirited momentum until it was called on the market at $675,000 and sold at $689,500.

“The sellers are having a treechange and keen to move to the Adelaide Hills, while the buyer Ben Kurtze had been actively for a while to buy. This is a hammerhead block and he tried to buy the front house in October but by chance this one went online in November and he won the keys today.”

Despite some intense developer interest, it was two friends (pictured above) who claimed the keys to 12 Waronna Ave, Windsor Gardens at auction today. The pair plan to knock down the existing house, subdivide and build their dream homes.

The auction attracted a massive 19 registered bidders who watched on as the bidding soared past the reserve of $440,000 to end with a $484,000 sale result through Ray White Norwood agent George Kargiotis.

Mr Kargiotis said he was still getting new interest from buyers who had never seen the property until just before the auction.

“We probably got seven or eight registered bidders who hadn’t seen the property and were interested in the land value,” Mr Kargiotis said.

“The home needs significant renovations so most were thinking of subdividing and putting two lots in but it was nice to see it go to an owner occupier.

“We are getting results that even us as real estate agents can’t foresee. Today’s outcome surpassed my expectations and across the board we are achieving prices that are 5 per cent above what we think is a great result.”