Bentleigh, 15 Vickery St, Craig Williamson (Buxton), bought after auction, $1,200,000, 3 bidders

At 6pm on Saturday, the James Clearance Rate for $M+ was 57% on the 23 auctions we attended. That figure represented a dip down from last week, but the stock quality was not up to what we have been seeing lately.

The Weekly Review Bidderman, our demand indicator, was 1.3 bidders per auction. 1 in 3 homes were ducks (no bidder auctions) – a substantial change from two weeks ago. However, again this may have been simply a reflection of this weekend’s overall lower quality.

The market away from auctions is not as quiet as these stats may indicate. As a company we have bought six homes in the last fortnight (Kew, Brighton, Glen Iris, Black Rock, Balwyn and St Kilda)  and the overall $3m+ market has had a number of substantial sales. Our full report on the current state of the $3m+ market is in this week’s The Weekly Review and will be republished in our $3m+ report section at week’s end.

With only 50 auctions at $M+ in Bayside and Inner East, this weekend we are giving you a Marketnews LITE version. The majority of them were below $2 million and a number were, shall we say, less than exciting offerings.

Next weekend is a solid one, stock-wise, with double the number of this weekend’s scheduled auctions at around 100. The pre Easter weekend of March 31 sees our first $M+ Super Saturday for 2012 with the number of auctions approaching the magic 150 mark.

Many parts of the market are still clearly operating at lower price levels than in previous years. The Land Only segment is a case in point. For instance we saw 19 Ebden Black Rock pass in this weekend for $1,525,000 after having changed hands for almost $2,000,000 a few years ago.  This is a good spot. But Black Rock, like Balwyn North and Bentleigh East are fringe suburbs and fringe suburbs are seeing Top End land prices drop and drop at faster rates than Melbourne’s Jewels such as Brighton, Hawthorn and Toorak. This is a normal market cyclical phenomenon where fringe land prices increase more dramatically (percentage wise) in rising markets but also fall at a faster percentage rate in tougher markets.

So despite the uplift in activity in the last month – and there really has been an uplift in activity, the ‘record price’ is still clearly the  exception rather than the norm in early 2012.

Elsternwick, 29 Orrong Rd, Bill Stavrakis (Biggin & Scott), under the hammer, $2,100,000, 4 bidders

Below is a sample of what we covered in our Auction Reports this weekend.

Elsternwick, 29 Orrong Rd, Bill Stavrakis (Biggin & Scott), under the hammer, $2,100,000, 4 bidders
Attending the auction at 29 Orrong Road in Elsternwick was like returning to the good old days of the property market…(See more in Auction Reports)

Malvern East, 94 Tooronga Rd, Karl Fitch (Noel Jones), under the hammer, $1,250,000, 5 bidders
We all love the theatre of auctions and this one didn’t disappoint, thanks to five bidders vying for the property!…(See more in Auction Reports)

Toorak, 101 Canterbury Rd, Tim Derham (Abercromby’s), under the hammer, $1,851,000, 4 bidders
“A blue chip piece of real estate in the heart of Toorak in a magnificent and convenient location”, were the passionate words of Tim Derham in his preamble, in front of the assembled group of 40…(See more in Auction Reports)

Malvern East, 20 Coppin St, Iain Carmichael (BenMac), bought after, $2,550,000, no bidders
A widely dispersed group of 60, many of whom were neighbours, gathered to witness this Malvern East auction…(See more in Auction Reports)

Balwyn, 13 Palmer Ave, Steve Abbott (Jellis Craig), passed in, $2,400,000, no bidders
A nice-sized crowd and the sun out and shining, what more could auctioneer Steven Abbott want…(See more in Auction Reports)

Bentleigh, 15 Vickery St, Craig Williamson (Buxton), after auction, $1,200,000, 3 bidders
Auctioneer Craig Williamson did not waste any time mentioning to the crowd that earlier in the day his agency had sold three properties that had a combined total of eighteen bidders…(See more in Auction Reports)

Looking forward to next week and giving you our full analysis on where the market is heading @ $M+