This article was first published by Scott Carbines and Sophie Smith on October 8, 2016 via heraldsun.com.au | Image: Image: Melbourne buyers remain frustrated at properties selling well above reserve prices, despite heavy fines for a rogue agency being handed down this week. Picture: Thinkstock
MELBOURNE buyers remain frustrated at properties selling well above reserve prices, despite heavy fines for a rogue agency being handed down this week.
Homes sold for more than $100,000 above reserve again this weekend — after Hocking Stuart Richmond was fined $330,000 in Federal Court for underquoting properties from 2014-2015.
But agents across Melbourne have noted a strong start to spring, with homes typically sold well above reserve price in most areas and for “bread and butter” structures.
More than 1000 homes went under the hammer this week — CoreLogic recorded a preliminary clearance rate of 81 per cent from 553 reported results.
Tony Lombardi from Harcourts was amazed when a Lalor home sold for $960,000 — $100,000 more than the reserve.
Mr Lombardi caters for the Lalor, Thomastown, Epping, Mill Park and Reservoir areas and said they were commanding higher price tags, due to a market that had more demand than supply.
“There is a lack of stock, high demand, and I think people are genuinely believing that this market is going to keep going for quite some time, so they’re trying to get in before it keeps getting higher and higher,” Mr Lombardi said.
“Probably the last six months there has been a significant increase in purchase price. I think buyers that purchased six months ago are better off than buyers that are purchasing now. The way things are going, buyers purchasing now are going to be better off than buyers purchasing six months from today.”
A man in Bayside on Sunday made more than $500,000, selling a property he bought and subdivided with minimal effort less than two years ago.
“The gentleman bought the block off us about a year-and-a-half ago for $956,000 and we’ve now sold that for $1.52 million after he subdivided it. Basically, all he has done is build a fence and got some plans through council and he has now sold both lots,” Hodges Sandringham agent Angus Graham said.
“That’s typical of how good the market is. The last two years the median increase is about 39 per cent, from that middle part of 2014 to now.”
Ben Jusufi, of LJ Hooker, said more than 100 people turned out for a standard house auction in Endeavour Hills at the weekend with about 10 people bidding, which he said was uncommon to the area, which is about 30 minutes from the CBD.