The Real Estate Institute of Victoria reported a clearance rate of 65% for 593 auctions, up 5% on last weekend.

"The improvement may be an early indication of growing confidence in the market thanks to the Reserve Bank's decision not to lift interest rates again," said Enzo Raimondo, chief executive of the REIV.

But with stock levels still high - there were just 35 auctions less than on the same day last year, when the clearance rate was 86% - and 138 properties passing in on vendor bids, there's still plenty for sellers to worry about.

"If you wanted to sum up the market in one word it would have to be unpredictable," said Frank Valentic of Advantage Property Consulting.

Vendors at the upper end of the market did seem to make a decent go of it yesterday, with some notable sales reported in the city's beachside and inner-eastern suburbs.

The strongest result reported to The Sunday Age was R. T. Edgar's auction of 91 Kooyong Road in Armadale, which achieved a sale price 31% higher than its reserve. The two-bedroom Victorian sold for $1.51 million.

Buxton sold a four-bedroom family house in Brighton for $2 million, which was $200,000 more than the reserve set for 16 Lorac Avenue.

A two-bedroom apartment on the water's edge in Port Melbourne topped its reserve by $170,000, with five bidders seeing 305/115 Beach Street fetch $1.22 million at the Hocking Stuart auction.

The agency also sold a double-storey Victorian terrace house at 9 Ellesmere Road, Prahran, for a respectable $2.005 million. The renovated and extended five-bedroom property was quoted at $1.75 million to $1.95 million.

Nearby in South Yarra, a modest 1960s-era two-bedroom apartment at 10/22 Kensington Road sold for $510,500, off a reserve $14,500 less. But the price wasn't nearly as interesting as the number of people who went for it.

"To have six bidders actively competing for a flat more than 40 years old shows that things are going pretty well in our part of the world," said Williams Batters director Philippe Batters.

It was also a big day for long-term owners to sell off properties purchased back when the currency was still the Australian pound.

In Clifton Hill, a two-bedroom house at 119 Roseneath Street sold for $40,000 more than its $560,000 reserve through Collins Simms. The house was first purchased 65 years ago for £600 ($A1240).

It took 52 years for a two-bedroom Edwardian in Yarraville to go from £3000 to $441,000 yesterday. Jas H. Stephens sold the property at 14 Cecil Street for $51,000 more than its reserve.

A 713-square-metre block of land purchased in 1962 for £2500 sold for $491,000 through Barry Plant Real Estate, with two bidders competing for a chance to demolish and build at 10 Howitt Drive, Lower Templestowe.

"It's clearly a great long-term result, although six months ago the property would have had a reserve set about $50,000 higher than the $450,000 level it was at yesterday," said chief executive Barry Plant.

Next weekend the number of properties up for auction will drop slightly to 540.