$1m beats $20m
Gina, Maddie, Mal, Phoebe, Simone and Kathy
Saturday 23rd of October 2021
An inner calm and sense of normality returns, even at $7m – 150 Kerferd Road Albert Park
Auctioneer: Simon Gowling
Crowd: 54
Opening Bid: $7,000,000
OM: $7,700,000
SOLD: $7,725,000
JAMES AUCTION REPORT
Bidders: 3
100 AUction TEST
SPRING Wrap
When we’re asked about the Inner Melbourne Top End market, we feel like answering along the lines of the Monty Python Holy Grail sketch – what have the Romans ever done for us.
So how is the market really going Mal and Gina after the 100 auction Spring test?
Do you ask how is the market going when 87 of the 100 homes, that we randomly covered at auction over the last month, all over $2m, including two this week over $7m have sold before, under the hammer or shortly afterwards – making it 3 more than the blistering record market of 2016 when the borders were open, we didn’t know what a pandemic was, all auctions were on the street and we had more manageable hair?
Do you ask how is the Inner Melbourne market really going when we’ve been locked down and our borders are shut, yet almost everything has sold quicker than in booms of the past and via a virtual method that a few years ago people were nervous ordering a $10 pizza on?
Do you ask how is the Inner Melbourne market going when for every bidder who is successful, there are 2 who are not (at every auction in the last four weeks), who limp away determined to fight harder, at a higher price next time, to avoid being a repeat wounded underbidder?
Do you ask how is the market doing when there are record sales over $10,000,000, over $20,000,000, over $30,000,000 and over $40,000,000 away from the auctions?
Do you ask how is the Inner Melbourne Top End market going when the borders are opening, the floating talk in the halls of power is how can they raise skilled migration rates again to pay off our debt and those skilled migrants will be the ones that lead a future house price rising charge?
Is this the question about Melbourne’s Top End that you are asking, how is the market going?
Intensity is dropping marginally. Bidderman has eased from 4 immediately after inspections restarted to 3 – but 3 bidders per auction is still an equal all-time high.
The pent-up lockdown bubble has had some air let out over the last fortnight, but it is still well and truly super pressurised.
Higher priced stock coming onto the market – with a few mixed results, but overall, still exceptionally strong. Stellar results at Portsea, Malvern East and 2 stratospherically huge in Toorak.
So, before you read too much into the tea leaves – a clearance rate over 90% on a larger sample size of 50 – that is ballistic, not levelling off.
What would be the signs if the market was easing?
A fracturing of results at
- different price points ($1m to $5m),
- different positions (fringe to blue chip) and
- different properties (A to B/C graders).
Some homes would continue to get strong competition and others not so. This would be a function of unmatched price expectations between buyer and seller on anything less than AAA properties.
This would be the first sign of change, well ahead of significant drops in clearance rates and median price stats. It’s good to know this early intel to prevent overpaying or rejecting the early best offer.
Overall, the market may be rolling off boiling to scorching and this may be due to talk of money tightening, stock market wobbles, we’ve all had enough, or it simply may be this is what happens every October (and May), the year’s biggest months for offerings.
Check in during the week as we update the Spring 100.
Take care for it’s still very fiery out there.
Week’s Insights
Intensity is dropping marginally. Bidderman has eased from 4 immediately after inspections restarted to 3 – but 3 bidders per auction is still an equal all-time high.
The pent-up lockdown bubble has had some air let out over the last fortnight, but it is still well and truly super pressurised.
Higher priced stock coming onto the market – with a few mixed results, but overall, still exceptionally strong. Stellar results at Portsea, Malvern East and 2 stratospherically huge in Toorak.
So, before you read too much into the tea leaves – a clearance rate over 90% on a larger sample size of 50 – that is ballistic, not levelling off.
What would be the signs if the market was easing?
A fracturing of results at
- different price points ($1m to $5m),
- different positions (fringe to blue chip) and
- different properties (A to B/C graders).
Some homes would continue to get strong competition and others not so. This would be a function of unmatched price expectations between buyer and seller on anything less than AAA properties.
This would be the first sign of change, well ahead of significant drops in clearance rates and median price stats. It’s good to know this early intel to prevent overpaying or rejecting the early best offer.
Overall, the market may be rolling off boiling to scorching and this may be due to talk of money tightening, stock market wobbles, we’ve all had enough, or it simply may be this is what happens every October (and May), the year’s biggest months for offerings.
Check in during the week as we update the Spring 100.
Take care for it’s still very fiery out there.
What is really happening?
No speculation, no tea leaf reading, no novels on fence-sitting.
Till lockdown is over, we will build this page towards 100 selected zoom auctions over $2m and we will publish every result, till we are clear on what is truly happening in our vaccinated Top End Inner Melbourne family home market.
It will be 7 days a week, it will be small on opinion and big on reality.
Right now, the market is on absolute fire – but things change quickly – more stock, talk of interest rates, talk of war and lockdowns and stock market wobbles, all change things very quickly. So, check in regularly.
Turn to the one place you get the real news on what is really going on – James Buy Sell.
Bumper Holiday Marketnews – see you next for the run to Santa. Melbourne Cup omen bet for Boroondara, Stonnington and Bayside Agents & Advocates (Great House) (The Chosen One) and (Incentivise) for the trifecta
James Buy Sell in conjunction with Buxton
Romana Altman 0414 804 270
October 23
SOI: $4,200,000 – $4,500,000
Auctioneer: Matthew Pillios
Agent: Matthew Pillios
Crowd: 50
Opening Bid: $4,350,000
Passed in: $4,400,000
Sold after: $4,600,000
JAMES AUCTION REPORT
Bidders: 2
October 23
SOI: $3,700,000 – $4,000,000
Auctioneer: Nick Johnstone
Agent: Nick Johnstone
On Zoom: 19
Opening Bid: $3,800,000
OM: $3,900,000
SOLD: $4,000,000
JAMES AUCTION REPORT
Bidders: 2
October 23
SOI: $2,700,000 – $2,970,000
Auctioneer: Justin Long
Agent: Justin Long
Crowd: 33
Opening Bid: $2,600,000 VB
Passed in: $2,930,000
Sold After: $3,000,000
JAMES AUCTION REPORT
Bidders: 3
October 23
SOI: $4,800,000 – $5,200,00
Auctioneer: John Morrisby
Agent: John Morrisby
Crowd: 48
Opening Bid: $4,900,000 VB
OM: $5,600,000
SOLD: $5,800,000
JAMES AUCTION REPORT
Bidders: 2
October 21
SOI: $6,300,000 – $6,600,000
Auctioneer: Warwick Anderson
Agent: Sarah Case
On Zoom: 16
Opening Bid: $6,300,000
OM: $6,650,000
SOLD: $7,075,000
JAMES AUCTION REPORT
Bidder: 3
October 21
SOI: $4,000,000 – $4,400,000
Auctioneer: Nicholas Brooks
Agent: Marcus Chiminello
On Zoom: 12
Opening Bid: $4,000,000 VB
Passed in: $4,000,000 VB
Under contract
JAMES AUCTION REPORT
Bidders: 0
We all get comfortable when the great man is out and about G-E-R-A-L-D.
October 23
SOI: $2,100,000 – $2,300,000
Auctioneer: Gerald Delany
Agent: Nicole Glesson
Crowd: 25
Opening Bid: $2,200,000
OM: $2,450,000
SOLD: $2,460,000
JAMES AUCTION REPORT
Bidders: 2
37 St. Georges Road Toorak –Warwick Anderson and Sarah Case over $7,000,000, over $12,000 per sqm and bought online like we do fashion.
Stonnington Top End is off market and there is more action than you may think, despite the return of street auctions.
NOT EVERYTHING IS ONLINE OR ON THE STREET
October 23
SOI: $3,850,000 – $4,150,000
Auctioneer: Doug McLauchlan
Agent: Duane Wolowiec
On Zoom: 19
Opening Bid: $3,900,000 VB
OM: $4,400,000
SOLD: $4,720,000
JAMES AUCTION REPORT
Bidders: 3
October 23
SOI: $2,200,000 – $2,400,000
Auctioneer: Hamish Tostevin
Agent: Hamish Tostevin
On Zoom: 28
Opening Bid: $2,200,000
OM: $2,450,000
SOLD: $2,780,000
JAMES AUCTION REPORT
Bidders: 3
October 23
SOI: $2,800,000
Auctioneer: Davide Lettieri
Agent: Davide Lettieri
On Zoom: 36
Opening Bid: $2,800,000 VB
OM: $2,825,000
SOLD: $3,400,000
JAMES AUCTION REPORT
Bidders: 4
October 23
October 21
SOI: $3,000,000 – $3,300,000
Auctioneer: Campbell Ward
Agent: Richard Winneke
On Zoom: 46
Opening Bid: $2,900,000
On The Market: $3,450,000
SOLD: $3,710,000
JAMES AUCTION REPORT
Bidders: 3
October 21
SOI: $5,000,000 – $5,500,000
Auctioneer: Hamish Tostevin
Agent: Nick Ptak
On Zoom: 20
Opening Bid: $5,200,000 VB
Passed in: $5,300,000
JAMES AUCTION REPORT
Bidders: 2
October 21
SOI: $2,300,000 – $2,500,000
Auctioneer: David Smith
Agent: David Smith
On Zoom: 28
Opening Bid: $2,760,000
OM: $2,760,000
SOLD: $2,985,000
JAMES AUCTION REPORT
Bidders: 6
October 19
SOI: $2,300,000 – $2,400,000
Auctioneer: Campbell Ward
Agent: Richard Winneke
On Zoom: 26
Opening Bid: $2,250,000 VB
Passed in: $2,300,000 VB
JAMES AUCTION REPORT
Bidders: 0
October 18
SOI: $3,200,000 – $3,500,000
Auctioneer: Andrew Gibbons
Agent: Chris Barrett
On Zoom: 18
Opening Bid: $3,650,000
OM: $3,650,000
SOLD: $3,800,000
JAMES AUCTION REPORT
Bidders: 4
October 18
SOI: $2,400,000
Auctioneer: William Chen
Agent: William Chen
On Zoom: 41
Opening Bid: $2,400,000
OM: $2,400,000
SOLD: $2,650,000
JAMES AUCTION REPORT
Bidders: 4
Piccolo, Piccolo, Piccolo its back to work we go!
SOI: $2,500,000 – $2,700,000
Auctioneer: John Piccolo
Agent: Caroline Hammill
Crowd: 35
Opening Bid: $2,550,000
OM: $2,760,000
SOLD: $3,040,000
JAMES AUCTION REPORT
Bidders 3
Boroondara was a hot place to be at auction this week.
Of the 9 we covered, 8 sold.
Bidderman 4,4,0,6,2,3,4,3,3 = 3.2
Volcanic
It MAY SEEM EXPENSIVE THIS WEEK
On 19 Oct 2021, at 2:01 pm, McLean, Mark <>>>>>>>>>@morganstanley.com> wrote:
Mal
You asked me quite some time ago whether I would give you a testimonial … I have just remembered that I agreed to do this! See below. Sorry about the delay.
Hope business is good for you. Two years ago, I felt like I may have overpaid for >>> Church Street … I am certainly not thinking that now!
All the best,
Mark McLean
____________
Mal James
We employed Mal in 2018 to help us acquire our neighbouring property. Mal came up with a strategy to make an approach discreetly in order to acquire the property at a sensible price.
The process was complex and challenging, particularly as we did not wish to disclose our identity to the vendor. However, with Mal’s help, we were ultimately successful in acquiring the property for a price that we were happy with.
Mal did a great job of formulating and executing the strategy, and particularly of managing the vendor and others who were assisting us with the offer. His advice was good and his execution was excellent.
I would strongly recommend him to others looking for assistance in acquiring a property.
$1m beats $20m - 1st home buyer
In a week we were engaged to sell a home over $20m and buy another around $20m. In the same week we completed a yearlong buy sell at $15m and Gina completed a 4 month off-market negotiation purchase with both sides winning and no agents circa $6m, there was an even bigger highlight.
The above 11 second video gives you a clue. That is my son Hughie (26) a carpenter and his partner Vicky in IT, buying their first home on life’s journey together.
We write often about intergenerational, tiny houses, getting into the market, overcoming adversity, all things are possible in money, nothing is perfect except ……the home you really, really want. Why? Because we feel these little mosaics can help you find the clues to PPP (position, property, price) family home contentment at any $ value @ $1m or $20m.
The concept of family home family help is not singular to the Melbourne geography, nor our multiculturalism, nor this special time period. Helping children secure land has been going for centuries and these challenges are being faced by Australians, but also by the Maasai of Africa, by the Rupert Murdochs and the Betty Smiths all over the world.
Population, life expectancies, education and the associated issues have meant as a society we have moved past the feudal, past the soldier settlements, past the ¼ acre block and into a new world of intergenerational co-operation – as they already do in the islands of Greece, in the slums of Mumbai, as they do at the heights of New York money, as families are now increasingly doing in Melbourne.
This is a practical how to help your children buy a home, how to work together as family story. Because when your children have children being closer can be better for all.
Agents: Jenny Dwyer, Sandra Michael of Belle Property. Auctioneer: Steve Tickell
Question: Mal and Gina why should we help our kids? We made it good on our own, in our day our mum and dad never ……
Answer: We are not trying to make moral arguments here – you do what you think is right. Take something, take nothing from our family homebuying journey, for whilst it is designed to be instructional, we are not proposing these as rules; more ideas, talking points, guides.
Intergenerational co-operation and living. How does it all happen?
It starts with matriarchal and/or patriarchal leadership (moral or instinctual, love or ….. but it starts…. it’s not just talk)
For me it started in 1986 when my mother gave me all of her “spare money” to buy a home – she was going to buy a Honda and didn’t – instead Mum and Dad gave me their $22,000 to buy a home in Franklin Road East Doncaster for $63,000, after I had lost all my money ($14,000) on a Ferny Creek home, having had to sell after a divorce.
That singular act of love had few strings attached, left another indelible mark about family, made me a lot more money than I could have ever saved and has given me enough confidence to carry out these sorts of family and property decisions going forward for my family.
When Mum and Dad were running into difficulties post retirement there wasn’t a second thought to buy them a home 500 metres away and then later another 50 metres away where they happily lived the last 20 years of their lives, but equally/more importantly our three children lived their first twenty years with the daily presence and influences of Poppy and Grandma.
PS: Did I negotiate the ‘86 deal like a true pro, like a natural – nope, my Mum did all the heavy lifting with the agent – I was pathetic. I paid her back and she bought the car a few years later.
Easy gifts are counterproductive
Whilst helping your children secure land is without doubt the right thing to do for many families, we have also seen first-hand where family “help or charity” has had the opposite effect of the good intentions.
Capital growth
Determined not to gift an imposed or easy/lazy solution to any of our children, we followed a plan of capital growth (mentally and money wise), so in time our children would find homes that do likewise – provide them with their own compounding capital growth.
Freedom in this world comes from your mind – a true fact. But with 3 screaming kids under 5 or 2 teenagers with massive school fees or through illness or unemployment, freedoms also come from growing your capital.
And a great way – not the only way – but a great way to grow your capital, is with a great PPP family home.
Deposit – make them save it, don’t gift it all.
At 15-25 (who knows the right age) start with Scotty Pape (Paul Clitheroe in my day) and a financial planner. Buy the book – The Barefoot Investor – pay your child $100 to read it, pay for them to see an independent financial planner and get them saving in the bank and stocks by matching $ for $ or versions thereof, on what they save. We used joint sigs so the money could not be pulled out without discussion.
Three years later enough was saved by Hughie. His partner Vicky had her own plan for saving and they got a combined loan for $880,000.
Giving advice and guidance shouldn’t give you as a parent – ownership of the project – well not unless you want to alienate – to turn the whole project into its about you, not them.
I felt being a dad and an agent putting some money in, didn’t give me the right to demand the PPP’s I thought best (like I would in a business deal). If Hughie and Vicky had chosen to buy in an outer suburb or an apartment in the CBD, I would have been less pleased or said some stronger words, but I would have accepted their decision. Buying a home is like a career or sport – it’s up to the child to make their own way. And better they make mistakes at this age and at these amounts than mid 50’s, with their life savings. I did not look for or suggest any homes – just some occasional advice on PPP’s.
But for Pete’s or Patricia’s sake please don’t let them buy a piece of rubbish, like an off the plan highrise or a boondocks Mcmansion away from all needed infrastructure, if you can avoid it. If you can, put a few extra bucks in and take those poorer future flexibility options for your children off the table.
Future
We have tried to encourage all clients and our own children to think of the future – to buy for now, but also with the future in mind. A groovy one bedder apartment in St Kilda or an alternative home at Swan Hill is all fine and dandy, until you /your children have children and then you need space and nearby, regular family support. As well, every time you move you destroy your savings in donations to the State government.
Structure and agreements
You should consider simple agreements in case of divorce, avoiding future sibling arguments when parents die and for all to have peace of mind that I/we (the parents) cannot renege (and I cannot). I have found big problems with other members of my wider family as to the nature of gifts and in part that was due to nothing being in writing at the time of the gift. But of course, if you need a law degree to understand the agreement it probably won’t do what it is intended to do – which is keep the peace.
I asked Hughie and Vicky to draw up the agreement and its less than a page, lawyers optional (we didn’t), copied into all family members (as was all key $ details) – all children get the same deal, the numbers may vary. It’s not a failsafe, but it’s an attempt and its simple.
Our agreement essence
It is a gift unless they sell the home. The gift would be rolled over into a new home. The gift would remain if there were a divorce and children and one parent remained in the home (not just my son – maybe consider your grandchildren). It only revokes if Hughie and Vicky sell, and the money is not put into another home. We have a family investment and if gifts were disproportionate, an adjustment at parental death will be made.
The logic is go now rather than wait till we die to help the children. I chose to borrow rather than sell a family asset. We have a family trust – but it was not involved in this – it could be?
Show Me the Money
I banked with a Top 4 bank all my life, however, after 3 years of trying to borrow further from them I gave up and went to a mortgage broker.
That broker was Grant Rheuben and Jin of Loan Market (ethical, brilliant service, patient). They suggested a different line of attack on the banks and set my family up with a million-dollar LOC (line of credit) at Macquarie at a lower rate than what I am paying now – 2.6%.
The Top 4 bank was not willing to give me a LOC to fund helping the children – which is OK, no complaints, but I needed it for my children.
Long story not so short – same business set up, same income, same structure – Grant and Jin got our family a LOC after much paperwork of $1,000,000 at 2.3% from Macquarie. Macquarie’s appointed valuer valued the asset at $4,300,000 – the same as it was appraised at 2/3 years ago – so nothing over the top, but $700,000 more than the Top 4 Bank valuers a few weeks before.
Debt – I’m ok with debt (but you may not be) – it if gets all too hard I can sell or with a large LOC I can hold. If I was better with money and divorces, then debt would not have been a consideration. My logic with debt is have my cake and eat it to. Get the capital growth a good family home asset provides, to pay off my children’s deposits etc that we contributed to on their family homes. Alternatively selling, downsizing and using the balance with the kids would also work for me.
People
Vicky and Hughie were so impressed they moved their home loan application to Jin and Grant as well.
We have consistently said getting good advice (and yes paying for it), getting the right people on board makes all the difference. I am supposed to be a property professional – but I couldn’t get my bank of many years, with no default on a 33% LVR and 20-year history of proven income, with 3 years of trying to lend me money to help my children. Why? Because it is not my area of expertise.
I swallowed my pride and got help.
Several months after trying a different tack and contacting a broker we got a very different result to me doing it myself.
Yes, still endless amounts of annoying paperwork to fill out, but the info updates from Grant and Jin were so good. I have rarely experienced this kind of help before.
My recommendation here is without any financial connection to Grant – except he did engage us to buy his home over a decade ago. We don’t do a lot of work because many of our clients have their finances sorted – but he has been around the traps a long time and Grant has a really good reputation – we trust him. You need to trust your mortgage broker.
These are helpful tables we got – with permission to show from Vicky and Hughie.
3P’s are important for this and for the next step.
Price. Property. Position. For family happiness
Price. Property. Position. For future flexibility (school, bedrooms, sanity)
Price. Property. Position. For capital growth (tax free)
Hughie and Vicky’s home is on 240 sqm of its own land, its dated but is a very livable, 2 possibly 3 bedroom home with carparking, 520 meters to the beach, also coincidentally 520 meters to the station and less to a wide variety of shops/schools and it just ticked over the $1m – all less than 15 km for the CBD. South facing rear block, but all the home floorplan and garden is orientated north.
This is a great first home. This is flexible – many long term options. This is a good investment.
Do it. Work together as a family. Even if you are divorced you are or can still be a family.
Will finish with Vicky explaining from her point of view.
“My family has a very different mentality when it comes to property than the family that I entered just over 3 years ago when I met my partner, Hugh. I was always told that buying property was an emotional investment, not a financial one, but through the property buying journey we have gone through over the last 2 years, I have learnt that it is definitely both.
2 years ago, when Hugh and I had been together for just over a year, he first raised that he would like to invest in property. He brought a one-bedroom apartment in St Kilda to the table, saying he would buy it and I could live in it with him. At the time, instead, we decided to rent an apartment in Elwood while we reviewed our options to one day invest together.
At the start of 2021, we finally took the leap and started the process of trying to find a home that we could buy together. After the year that I had just spent working from home in our Elwood apartment, I was more than ready for a change, and buying a property with Hugh, a soon to be carpenter, would give us the freedom that we needed to improve the space that we lived in, and a place for me to invest the love that I seemed to have spare.
We started out by finding out how much we could afford. The first strategy that we received involved using Mal as a guarantor to avoid LMI. When we went to Mal with this proposed strategy, he was more than happy to act as guarantor, but he began to think of more creative ways that would enable Hugh and I to buy a property that we could enjoy for longer, start a family in, build our lives in. His knowledge of property and the associated potential financial strategies led to us seeking a second strategy, one that had Mal more integrally involved. Grant and Jin from Loan Market were able to help us formulate that strategy that not only meant that Hugh and I could afford a property in which to start our lives together, but would also allow Mal to help Hugh’s siblings with a similar process in the future.
With our financial strategy confirmed, Hugh and I then had to start the very emotional journey of finding a property that was right for us. After viewing hundreds of properties online, enduring several lockdowns that shut real estate, having dozens of emotional conversations about what we wanted in a property, viewing tens of properties in person, having our hearts broken several times as we missed out of properties that we liked, we finally found our perfect property.
Then came the formalities that would secure us the property. Thanks to Phoebe and Sim for their amazing work behind the scenes, connecting with all of the correct stakeholders, and to Mal for leading the charge, we got to the auction on Wednesday night prepared for what was to come.
Hugh and I decided that Mal should bid for us, firstly because of his expertise and immense experience, but also because I was very inexperienced and was sure that I was going to be very emotional during the auction. Mal opened the bidding for us and was more than prepared. He was able to top every bid almost instantly, knowing exactly how much to bid to communicate to the other bidders, and to the real estate team and auctioneer on the other end, that we were more than serious about this property. Although, as a team, we were prepared to spend >30% above the listed price on another home, we were at our limits here, and thanks to the amazing strategy and tenacious bidding, we were able to secure this dream home.
And that is how, thanks to the help, love, support and expertise of family, Hugh and I have secured our perfect property, which we are so excited to move into early next year.”
MORE READING ON FAMILY HELP FAMILY HOME
“ How many agents do you know who have bought then sold a home for over $16m in Bayside, over $14m in Stonnington and over $13m in Boroondara this year?
That’s the market you are thinking? Well, those same three homes were all well above current sworn valuations, 40% above what 4 agents told the seller or 30% above the sale price of a very similar home, in the same street, on the market at the same time. Two were off market and one was public. All three have settled – they were real.
But who are they? You never saw their faces on the advertising, their names in the paper or possibly never made a phone call to them. I have worked with them on some of their grand deals and it’s hard to explain what they do, except to say it’s very calm behind the scenes.
It’s probably easier to explain what they don’t do. They don’t allow communication breakdowns, they don’t allow BS to the client or to the agent, they don’t allow restrictive thinking. They do provide left field strategies that can only come from knowing intimately how a buyer and seller think, how a great deal works.
You have heard of the horse whisperers, these two are more the house whisperers, level heads, grand expectations but with low profiles and follow through – continuing to go when for most, the going has got too tough. Stoic and consistent. They are respectful and patient.
They are a pleasure to work with and as they have recommended me at times, I too return the favour in a very genuine way. They do what we agents cannot – they work with us all or they work with one, whatever is in your best interests.
Happy to work with them. Happy to talk to you confidentially about them.”
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