Yet another pass in 49 Farrell Street, Port Melbourne. Andrew Stuart of Hocking Stuart searching for Bidders.

Over the past two weeks we have reviewed more than 900 properties in Melbourne’s blue Chip suburbs. Of those properties, 35 were flagged for inspection. Properties are excluded using strict criteria which includes the review of attributes like aspect, light, size, number of levels & legal ownership.

Post inspections, 7 of these properties have been selected as being James Investment Grade: In other words, less than 1% of properties that have come onto the market recently. These properties are hard to find and also hard to fault.

Speaking about the market, generally yields are between 2.5% to 4.5% depending on the type and size of the property. In contrast to this time last year, yields were around 3.5% to 5.5%. The fall in yields is due to recent price rises, whilst rents have remained relatively steady over the same period.

In our target suburbs Vacancy Rates are at present less than 2% and in most cases less than 1%. Interestingly however, this is not putting upward pressure on Rents as the market place seem to be maxed out at current levels.

Towards the end of July the market sentiment was definitely cooler with buyers keeping their hands in their pocket. This resulted in a number of properties passing in, especially under the $1,000,000 mark. This trend is could continue as we move towards the uncertainty of the up-coming election.

There is opportunity for buyers in the market place at the moment with bidder numbers down, an overhang in stock resulting from the falling clearance rates and noticeable reductions in price from a number of months ago.

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