Weekend - 20/7/2008 

Yesterday's clearance rate was 63% for 464 auctions. This is up 1% on last Saturday, which had fallen 4% from the previous weekend.

"The fact that the remaining banks have increased their rates this week certainly hasn't provided any help to the market, but (activity) hasn't dropped as much as it could have," said Enzo Raimondo, chief executive of the Real Estate Institute of Victoria.

One of the highest prices paid yesterday was for 98 Rowell Avenue, Camberwell, which sold for $1,291,000, or 17% more than the reserve. The four-bedroom family house attracted four bidders, with strong enough competition for it to open at $1.05 million and sail easily past the reserve at $1.1 million.

"It went to a couple who had seen the property for the first time (that day)," said Hocking Stuart director Glen Coutinho.

Hocking Stuart reported a clearance rate of 63% for the 54 auctions held across its network yesterday, with five returning results of more than $1 million.

A vendor bid of $300,000 opened the auction of 12/37 Wheatland Road, Malvern, with competition between five bidders strong enough for the one-bedroom unit to sell for $368,000. Richard Wakelin, director of Wakelin Property Advisory, said the property had been declared on the market by RT Edgar for $38,000 less.

"These units have seen pretty strong capital growth, selling originally for around $140,000 in 1998," Mr Wakelin said.

In the central business district, after-auction negotiations led to the sale of a two-bedroom apartment in the art deco building at 404/390 Little Collins Street for $457,000. The auction opened with a vendor bid of $430,000, and two bidders took it to $452,000 before the property passed in through Hocking Stuart.

A developer and two prospective owner-occupiers squared off over a vacant block at 1 Halley Street in Blackburn, with the competition at the Ray White auction proving just enough for the 1342-square-metre allotment to make $2400 more than its reserve. The property, which has been sitting empty for more than 80 years, went to one of the owner-occupiers for $837,400.

The news was not as good for the land release at Sunland Group's Chancellor estate in Bundoora yesterday, where fewer than half the 13 available allotments sold.

The result was below the sales rates for previous release days this year, although two buyers paid $405,000 for 727-square-metre and 792-square-metre blocks.

More than 460 auctions are scheduled for next weekend, nearly a third less than there were for the same time last year and more than 5% below the stock level for 2006.

The REIV will release its median house and apartment price figures for the June quarter next Saturday. They are tipped to show an overall fall across the metropolitan area and in many suburbs.

But most analysts are expecting the drops will not match those in the March quarter, which had price declines of 8.4% for houses and 3.9% for apartments.

Robert Papaleo, director of strategic research for Charter Keck Cramer, said: "The big hit (for the market) would have been taken in March, so the correction in prices won't be that high in this quarter . . . and growth for the 12 months to June should remain positive."

Source: Domain