Despite the recent 25 base point RBA interest rate rise, Melbourne property market is even hoter after Easter, having recorded its strongest opening quarter on record.
The weekend’s clearance rate reached 85 per cent, from the 488 auctions reported.
JPP Buyer Advocates’s Catherine Cashmore went to five auctions at the weekend and said all the properties at the top end of the price range sold.
A one-bedroom South Yarra apartment at 4/34 Tivoli Road was on the market at $450,000, before six bidders pushed the selling price to $675,000, more than $200,000 past the reserve.
A renovated property at 1/15 Ashby Grove in Eaglemont was quoted in the low $500,000s and sold for $645,000.
The two-bedroom residence at 149 Lennox Street, Richmond, went on the market at $760,000, and sold for $876,000.
Ms Cashmore said interest rate rises were going to have little effect on a housing market where the real problem was a lack of stock for the booming population.
Noel Jones group chairman Adrian Jones believed the market was as strong as ever, even after the latest interest rate increase.
He said about six bidders competed for 54 Albion Road, a two-bedroom weatherboard home in Box Hill, which was on the market at $705,000, and sold for $849,000. ‘
Mr Jones said a Camberwell home backing a railway line, at 1 Westbourne Grove, sold for $1.1 million. ”Camberwell is just so popular, people will pay almost any price to get into the market.”
But buyers’ advocate Peter Rogozik said: ”I think the rapid price increase we’ve seen since mid-2009 has come to an end and what we’ll see in the future is more gradual price increases.”
He said bidding for the deceased estate at 36 Empress Avenue, Kingsville, opened at $300,000 and with three bidders and a reserve of $550,000. The property was passed in for $497,500.
”It was quite an interesting result … there’s a fair gap between what it was passed in on and the reserve,” he said.
The chief executive of Real Estate Institute of Victoria, Enzo Raimondo, said compared with the past few years, listings for the next few weeks were very strong, almost double what they were this time last year. ”Buyers have choice but will face competition,” he said.