End of financial year bonanza for sellers in Melbourne suburbs

Date: 30 Jun 15

Sellers in multiple Melbourne suburbs have been virtually guaranteed their homes will sell in the past three months, the REIV said today.

REIV CEO Enzo Raimondo said that in the three months to the end of June, four suburbs have had 100 per cent clearance rates, with rates in another 42 suburbs at 90 per cent or more.

“The four red-hot sale suburbs were Blackburn South, Ferntree Gully, Chadstone and Heidelberg. Each had 15 or more auctions and all those homes sold.

“By the same time last year only one suburb – Ashwood – had a clearance rate of 100 per cent,” he said.

Mr Raimondo said there had been close to 10,000 auctions across Victoria in the June quarter, with 79 per cent of properties – that’s almost 8,000 – sold. This was up from a clearance rate of 71 per cent and 10,700 auctions for the same period last year.

In the year-to-date the clearance rate has also been 78 per cent, up from 71 per cent for the same period last year, with the number of sales higher from fewer auctions.

Mr Raimondo said most of the suburbs with the highest clearance rates were in Melbourne’s sought-after east and south-east such as Bayswater, although North Melbourne and Mill Park were also in demand.

“The strong auction market is being buoyed by the low interest rates, with the May rate cut encouraging more buyers to enter the market,” he said.

Private sales – still the most common form of sale in Victoria, Melbourne included – have also been running hot with a fall in the median number of days on market.

“High demand, combined with slightly lower levels of stock in the past couple of months, has meant a drop from 37 days in April to 35 days in Metropolitan Melbourne in May – significantly lower than the long-term average of 39 days,” he said.