22 South Road Brighton - Mark Earle - Bought After - $3,255,000 - 3 bidders
Saturday April 21st: 22 South Road Brighton (Peter Hickey) Bought After $3,255,000
James Auction Report: Thought I would come to see the only $3m auction on offer today – that is if it is actually gets $3m+. Auctioneer Mark Earle strides out in front of a crowd of around 60 and launches into a synopsis of the rules, some pearls on the market and his thoughts about how good this home is. Well down to business, let’s see if any bidders share his views on this 1700sqm rambling home with tennis court on South Road. A fair and reasonable start is called for, but none is forthcoming and so a vendor bid is made at $3,000,000. To be honest the crowd doesn’t seem to be excited about things – but in balance it’s unlikely to have anymore than one or two bidders – but it will sell eventually as tennis courts always do. After some patter and some fill a grumpy $3,000,000 is called out and is excepted and replaces the vendor bid. A second bidder tries to get out $3,020,000 but is beaten by a third bidder to $3,050,000 and two bids later we are at $3,100,000. A hesitation and another $25,000 comes from Bidder one to $3,125,000. Bidder Three is looking at Bidder Two who goes to $3,150,000 and after Bidder One says he is out Bidder Three comes in at $3,175,000. Strangely the on the market question is not asked. Mark is working the bidders well and extracts a smaller bid after his suggestion of $10,000 and then a $5,000 and it’s passed in at $3,190,000. Good auctioneering and it’s passed in – it will sell. It did.
35 Sussex St Brighton (Jason Gill) – a home in need of some serious work on good land (880 sqm) has been sold – short or initial expectations but nonetheless a solid number below $2,800,000.
13 Washington Toorak (Hugh Hardy) – a quiet off market of land only – 700 sqm selling for above $5,500 per sq metre.
March finished pretty strongly and, despite a big slowdown in terms of April auctions and new stock, the deals have kept coming. The mainstream media have been claiming a slowdown based on a few paltry sales last weekend, but they’ve been eating a bit too much chocky if they think that represents a true sample of what is happening out there right now at the Top End. While price is still very iffy, interest isn’t.
May is the pointer for 2012 and we are looking at a number of off market homes and pre-market homes (for listing in May). Which means there will be enough on offer to see where that 2012 pointer goes. Our feelings are that prices are still stabilising and that activity is OK.
Last year we had three activity spikes – one around Easter, one in September and a small one for two weeks in December. Those spikes featured homes in and around $3m to $7m.
March 2012 was definitely a spike in terms of activity and April has continued in that vein; not so much in terms of numbers (due to the holidays) but in terms of substantial deals.
Worth noting are four recent sales at around the $10 million mark (3 over and 1 just under). What that says is that people are acting. We last saw this level of activity in August last year where $55 million worth of property sold across 11 sales. In some ways the 2012 Easter weekend was just as impressive with 3 and possibly a 4th ultra-quiet sale in South Yarra transacting for over $10 million and another one very close to it.
A quick rundown on some of the biggies:
- Level 39, Royal Domain Tower, 368 St Kilda Road, Melbourne
Whole floor in excess of 50 squares. Sold by Andrew Baines of Kay and Burton – Over $8,000,000. - 26 Albany Road Toorak
Set on grounds totaling approximately 2,476sqm, a championship-size tennis court and indoor/outdoor pool. Sold by Michael Gibson of Kay and Burton. Over $10,000,000. On the market for over a year and offers back and forth saw this home sell in excess for we believe $11,000,000. - 1 Millswyn St South Yarra
On 2,152sqm approx in South Yarra – yes it’s part commercial but it’s a big piece of residential dirt. Sold by Michael Gibson and Matt Davis of Kay and Burton for over $10,000,000 we believe. - 21- 23 Kooyoongkoot Road Hawthorn – Sold by Marcus Chiminello of Marshall White. Over $12,000,000
Tennis court court and pool on 2,788 sqm – just down from another big parcel of land at 33 which sold for around $8,000,000 last month. - 49 Irving Road Toorak – it’s been on the market longer than Richmond has been trying to win their latest premiership but it has finally been put away by Jeremy Fox for $5,000,000 on the knocker.
- 7 Maple Grove Toorak - slightly dated home with a tricky floor plan. Sold by Michael Armstrong for over $4,500,000
- 38 Havelock Road Hawthorn East – 1300+ sqm in size, had been on the market for some time with initial quotes in excess of $4 million. Sold by Glen Coutinho of Hocking Stuart for just above the mid $3 millions.
- And the Balwyn Formula is back in vogue (sort of), that is, small land, big new home and big price – with 3 such homes recently sold in the suburb: 57 Citview (Brett Philipp); 31 Elliott (John Bradbury) and 111 Winmalee (Jin Shang). All sold for between $2,800,000 and $3,200,000 with land sizes between 650 and 750 sq metres. Prices are down but activity is improving.
- 79 Beaconsfield Parade Albert Park – the sale was managed by Paul Western of Cayzer Real Estate. On land of 409m2. Passed in at auction on the 3/03/12 and sold on 4/04/12 in the range of $3.2m to $3.5m
Down Bayside way things have been a bit quieter, but that is after a dozen or so $3m+ sales last month. One recent sale was 32 Dawson Avenue (newish home in the Golden Mile), sold by Chris Bevan for an undisclosed amount.
This month, like last month and next month, is shaping up as good solid activity months for buyers and sellers, a number of high end quality agents and the $3m+ market overall.
So if you want to buy there seems little reason to be totally negative, sensible on price and quality yes, but not totally negative. While the market may be down in terms of price from last year and activity is still nowhere near the stellar heights of 2010, there is definitely a heartbeat at this Top End level right now, and that is good news for sellers and buyers alike.
As a company we have been involved in seven deals over a million in April – with three purchased to date and four still pending. The three we purchased were: an Off Market around Gasworks Park in Albert Park (Kaine Lanyon); a pre auction sale in Richmond (Luke Schickerling) and a holiday home (private auction) at Fairhaven with Marty Maher from Great Ocean Properties. We should add that the three agents in these cases were professional to deal with and got solid prices for their vendors – two of the three had multiple bidding.
Finally it does look like the Kay and Burton Mexican Wave is back – although we are not sure that is good news for us buyers and hopefully it won’t last too long.
And to finish with some balance – there are still a number of homes out there that haven’t sold: Kooyongkoot Road, Central Park Road, Kooyong Road to name a few – they are really good homes but ……..
May is looking reasonable for new stock.
Life’s OK.
