Private Sale Homes Selling Fast

Houses offered for private sale are selling faster in popular middle and outer Melbourne suburbs. While attention has been focused on the city’s stronger auction market in 2014, almost 70 per cent of home sales are private sales, REIV Chief Executive Officer Enzo Raimondo said.

“While clearance rates indicate how well houses are selling at auction, the key indicator for private sales is number of days on the market,” he said. “This measures how long it takes properties to sell, from initial listing through to final sale.”

Mr Raimondo said that there have been significant falls in the number of days properties were on the private sale market in a range of suburbs, from western bayside Williamstown to Narre Warren in the outer east.

Mr Raimondo said there had been a particularly notable change on the Mornington Peninsula, made more accessible to Melbourne by the opening of Peninsula Link. Three positions on the REIV’s list of top 10 improvers were Peninsula suburbs: Mount Martha, Blairgowrie and Mount Eliza. Properties there took between 46 and 38 days less to sell in the first six months of this year, compared to 2013.

“While the focus this year has been on a stronger auction market, the table compiled by REIV shows that the private sale market in a number of suburbs is also stronger this year,” Mr Raimondo said. He added that private sales have traditionally been popular in outer suburbs, offering familiarity to local buyers. “One of the features (of a private sale) is that it does not impose the time constraints – and immediate decision-making – that’s required at an auction,” he said.

* Number of days on market for private sales (houses)
** Difference (i.e. reduction) in number of days on market in 2014 compared to 2013.Slight differences can occur due to rounding.

Source: www.reiv.com.au