The billion dollar baby

Wednesday, 03 March 2010
ONE BILLION DOLLARS.
Yes that is $1,000,000,000…
The Australian property market continues to defy the odds, posting stellar auction clearance results over the weekend.
According to statistics from RP Data, Melbourne posted an auction clearance rate of 82.7 per cent.
Perhaps more impressive however, was the fact that the city managed to clear more than $1 billion in total sales over the weekend.
The most expensive property sold was a three bedroom home in Melbourne’s Toorak, which sold under the hammer for a cool $4.7 million. Ordinary two bed units, stock built in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, in the inner East and Bayside defied belief and sold at around $9,000 pqsm, a price usually reserved for off-the-plan acquisitions.

Sydney, Adelaide and Perth all managed to post above average record clearance results as well.
In Sydney, 77.6 per cent of properties were cleared over the weekend, while 68.3 per cent and 66.7 per cent were cleared in Adelaide and Perth respectively.
Overall, the national weighted clearance rate across Australia was 77 per cent.

RP Data’s national research director Tim lawless said the clearance rate was very strong, suggesting there are still plenty of buyers in the market.
“To provide some relativity, at the same time last year the clearance rate was 63 per cent across 1,335 auctions,” Mr Lawless told The Adviser.
“The important thing about auctions clearance rates is that they provide arguably the most timely barometer of real estate market sentiment available. A strong clearance rate suggests vendor and buyer expectations are reasonably in balance. Vendor price expectations are being met by buyers and buyers are active enough to provide a competitive bidding environment.
“For the time being it looks like auction markets and clearance rates are set to continue to their strong performance.

Based on the RP Data – Rismark Hedonic Home Value indices, values are continuing to climb with a 2.4 per cent gain in national home values over the three months ending January.”

According to Mr Lawless, vendors are continuing to place a large number of properties on the market, with the number of new listings hitting the market currently higher than at any time last year.
At the same time, the total amount of stock available for sale is actually lower than the same time last year, suggesting that buyers are continuing to outweigh sellers.