Melbourne house sells for more than $260,000 above the reserve and even the auctioneer is confused

Surely the recovery HAS begun: House sells for more than $260,000 ABOVE the reserve – and even the auctioneer is confused

  • A four-bedroom Melbourne house was listed with a reserve price of $740,000
  • It sold at auction for $1.002million on Saturday, a level $262,000 above reserve
  • Melbourne had 79.7 per cent auction clearance rate, Sydney was at 84.7 per cent
  • Auctioneer Glenn Gardiner was so confused he even said the wrong final price 

A house has sold for more than $260,000 above its reserve price and even the auctioneer was confused.

The four-bedroom house in Melbourne’s south-east with timber ceilings was listed for $740,000.

The final sale price of $1.002million for the Belgrave home far exceeded the owners’ expectations, with 94 bids pushing it $262,000 or more than 35 per cent above the reserve price.

 

A house has sold for more than $260,000 above its reserve price and even the auctioneer was confused. The four-bedroom house in Melbourne’s south-east with timber ceilings was listed for $740,000

The result was remarkable, considering that Melbourne’s median house price has dived by 10.7 per cent during the past year and by 14.7 per cent since peaking in late 2017, CoreLogic data showed.

Fletchers auctioneer Glenn Gardiner was so surprised by the final bid he said the wrong price on Saturday.

‘At $902,000? A million and two? Sorry? Can you delete that?,’ he said in footage taken by the ABC’s 7.30 program. ‘A million and $2,000, ladies and gentlemen.’

Sellers David and Lorinda Smith hugged after witnessing the final auction sale price, as their children Evie and Marlo looked on.

The climbing bids became too much for Lorinda Smith.

‘When it sort of got higher than we expected we had to sit down because it was just blowing us away,’ she said.

Sellers David and Lorinda Smith hugged after witnessing the final auction sale price, as their children Evie and Marlo looked on

Sellers David and Lorinda Smith hugged after witnessing the final auction sale price, as their children Evie and Marlo looked on

AUSTRALIA’S HOUSING MARKET RECOVERY

Sydney, up 0.2 per cent to $864,993

Melbourne, up 0.1 per cent to $710,151

Brisbane, up 0.3 per cent to $533,295

Adelaide, down 0.3 per cent to $461,651

Perth, down 0.5 per cent to $459,227

Hobart, up 0.3 per cent to $482,044

Darwin, up 0.6 per cent to $472,467

Canberra, down 0.3 per cent to $657,686 

Source: CoreLogic Home Value Index median house prices for July 2019 

Her husband was also surprised.

‘Yeah, we expected the bidding to start out quite low and it started out right at the top and it just went crazy from there,’ he said. ‘So amazing.’

The house was advertised for between $680,000 to $740,000 – a level only marginally above Melbourne’s median house price. 

The first bid of $750,000 was already above the home’s reserve price. 

Melbourne had a 79.7 per cent weekend auction clearance rate, with only Sydney having a higher rate of 84.7 per cent, CoreLogic figures showed.  

Capital city auction rates have hit a two-year high, with clearance levels rising by 13 per cent compared with the previous week.

Domain research analyst Eliza Owen said the higher-end of the market usually recovered first.

‘It’s always generally been seen that the high end of the market moves first, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne,’ she told the ABC. 

Fletchers auctioneer Glenn Gardiner was so surprised by the final bid he said the wrong price on Saturday

Fletchers auctioneer Glenn Gardiner was so surprised by the final bid he said the wrong price on Saturday

‘It doesn’t hold across all the cities but generally, we expect that the high end of the market leads and provides an indication for what other markets could do in the future.’

Property prices in Sydney and Melbourne peaked in 2017 after the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority tightened the rules around investor and interest-only loans. 

APRA, the banking regulator, has since scrapped the requirement for lenders to model a borrower’s ability to pay off a standard variable mortgage rate of 7.25 per cent.

The Reserve Bank of Australia also cut interest rates in June and July, taking the cash rate to a record-low of one per cent and pushing home loan rates below three per cent. 

The house was advertised for between $680,000 to $740,000 - a level only marginally above Melbourne's median house price. The first bid of $750,000 was already above the home's reserve price

The house was advertised for between $680,000 to $740,000 – a level only marginally above Melbourne’s median house price. The first bid of $750,000 was already above the home’s reserve price

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