Richard Earle (Jellis Craig) tries to coax a reaction from the crowd at Murdoch Street Camberwell

Although the sun was not really out, the bidders certainly were, with most properties over $1m selling in Boroondara today. Bidderman was strong at many auctions and there was no shortage of them.

Talking to Richard Winneke from Jellis Craig this afternoon, the market, he believes, has gone up at least 10% since the end of last year (and we may well agree with this). One property Richard sold today was 98 Pakington Street in Kew. This sold under the hammer for a strong $1.851m  – interestingly it last sold (property condition basically unchanged) in the heat of the market 2007 for $1.445m.  30% in about 2.5 years – that is good capital growth in any language.

Richard also mentioned that Jellis Craig had sold 43 out of their 46 auctions. This stacks up closely with the other Boroondara heavyweight agency Marshall White which too had a similar clearance rate for a similar number of auctions. Hamish Tostevin of the firm continued his successful run with a result of 7 sales from 7 properties this week.

Another strong result in Hawthorn (remember York Street last week) was 7 Lyall Road Hawthorn. Hocking Stuart sold this at a strong price of $1.95m – around $300K over reserve. Bidderman was 8 here, and this auction went for almost an hour. Well done to auctioneer Glen Coutinho for hanging in there.

Some other auctions we covered where Bidderman was strong was  87 Sackville Street Kew (sold for $3.305m, Bidderman 3), 18 St.Andries Street Camberwell (sold for $1.62m, Bidderman 3), 9 Leslie Street Hawthorn (sold for $1.435m, Bidderman 3) and 7 Fakenham Road in Ashburton (sold for $1.325m, Bidderman 4). On the subject of Ashburton, is this gaining some sort of parity with Glen Iris? 22 Boyle Street and 13 Ward Street also sold today for $1.310m and $1.429m respectively – all three of these auctions were strongly attended and fought for.

An interesting ‘land’ sale was 35 Essex Road in Surrey Hills – land size here was 1080m2. Had a period home which needed work (refer last week’s architecture article) or could have been bulldozed. This sold for $2.007m or $1860/m2.  Compare this to a similar property in the next street – 8 Middlesex Road – approx. 180m2 less land but a very-well renovated period home sold for $2.005m. Another land sale was 100 Winmalee Road Balwyn – 953m2 -  sold for $1.635m or $1734m2. An interesting ‘architect home’  sale was 10 Bluff Street Hawthorn – the style of this  polarised opinion, yet did sell under the hammer for $1.98m. The style may not have been for everybody but room sizes and flow were very good.

Not everything was bought however. At the higher-higher end 24 Coppin Grove Hawthorn passed in.

As things cool off a bit for auctions next weekend due to the Labour Day long weekend, buyers can take a breather – big auctions coming up after this though (flag March 27) and the strength in the market looks like it will continue up to Easter at least.

Design Smart

Adam