He is loud, uncompromising and highly opinionated. He is also charming, hard working and effective. He is Tostevin and he is a machine. Come with me, come with me, he demands of two $7 million bidders at 49 Harcourt Hawthorn. And they did!

Key Points:

• Of the 10 auctions we attended in Boroondara on Saturday, all but one either sold under the hammer or was bought after auction.
• Canterbury 7 from 8 over a million were bought at auction today.
• Highlight auction was 49 Harcourt Ave, Hawthorn East, James Tostevin, bought in excess of $7 million.
• Weakest areas were Balwyn and Balwyn North, with only 5 from 10 selling.
• 35 purchases over $1 million in Boroondara this week.

Celia St, Glen Iris We love watching Celia Street Glen Iris blocks sell – they are very similar,  sell regularly and show you how the market works.

Read the full article...(estimated 2:50 mins reading time)

David Oster (Jellis Craig) stands high at 59 Studley Rd, Ivanhoe. The historic property sold under the hammer for $4,300,000. Two bidders and a crowd of around 80.

At 6pm on Saturday the James Million-Dollar-Plus clearance rate was 65% for the 43 auctions we attended. Of those, 15 were bought under the hammer.

Auction numbers were up across the board, but results were very mixed. Fringe $M+ areas such as Moonee Ponds, Bentleigh and Eaglemont performed very well, but Bayside put in an all too familiar poor performance – and Port Melbourne through to Elwood had a bigger shocker than Collingwood. Boroondara was steady as she goes.

Overall we saw strong results this weekend, all things considered.

Read the full article...(estimated 6:18 mins reading time)

Scott "Pretty Boy" Patterson (Jellis Craig) fields bids from five bidders before 60 First Ave, Kew, is bought under the hammer for $1,205,000. Check out our video on this auction.

Key Points:

• We covered nine auctions, three bought under the hammer, 2 post auction and 4 passed in
• Jellis Craig had an 80% Clearance Rate today
• Big numbers of $M+ auctions today – 42 monitored
• Bidderman is over 2 on a day when we monitored over 40 $M+ auctions in Boroondara. That’s “strongish.”
• Surprisingly Camberwell only 4 from 10 and some that passed in were good offerings eg 8 Canterbury and 46 Brinsley
• Hawthorn and Hawthorn East 7 from 8 bought.

Agent Comments: The election question

Read the full article...(estimated 3:28 mins reading time)

Tough day at the office. Wind, rain and no bidders. Hamish "Elf" Tostevin - 60 Pakington Kew.

Key Points

• Boroondara is still the toughest game in town for $M+ buyers – although good new stock arriving everyday.
• Will Hawthorn, Kew, Camberwell and surrounds be able to maintain their market strength with more stock coming in – or will we see a repeat of May?
• Post Auction Clearance rate was over 80% with reasonable bidder numbers on good auction numbers. Strongish.
• 23 Chaucer Canterbury – auctioned by James “Ali” Tostevin, was bought for undisclosed amount above $3,850,000 and another big sale - 5 Callantina Hawthorn – Steve Burke, Jellis Craig was bought for $3,330,000.
• 64 Maud Balwyn with Richard Earle – see report in Market News which says land is approaching $1800 per sq metre.

Agent Comments to “Where is the $3m+ market now?”

Read the full article...(estimated 2:30 mins reading time)

Hmmmm this maybe a pass-in! It was, but quickly sold afterwards: Richard James aka "No Relation" of Jellis Craig: Balwyn North 68 Corhampton: Bought $1,085,000: 2 bidders.

Key Points

• Strong Monitored Clearance Rate (79%) on reasonable numbers today -  auctions running at about a third to half of May peak on any given Saturday
• Increase in Top End properties on and off market in key suburbs like Canterbury, Camberwell, Kew and Hawthorn
• Still two sales over $1million every day of July – although only three reported to be over $3million for the whole of the month
• Today’s BidderBuzz Auction was with Doug McLauchlan at 42 Gardiner Glen Iris, with 6 bidders – see report below

Agent Comments

Read the full article...(estimated 1:60 mins reading time)

What a funny lot we are at auction! Check out the Expressions! Malvern 4 Grace: Marcus Chiminello and Justin Long: 4 bidders, Bought After Auction

At 6pm on Saturday the James Million-Dollar-Plus clearance rate was 59% for the 31 auctions we attended.

Bidderman was at 1.5 – a more representative number than last week’s 2.2 we think. 

Main Points:

Read the full article...(estimated 5:17 mins reading time)

• A significant, but largely expected, drop in activity and dollar value
• 3 Longstaff Kew East – sold by Glen Coutinho of Hocking Stuart, had a crowd of 80 with 5 bidders and was bought for $1,413,000. This one was all about the renovation and not the position, home rather than location. See our report and click onto our ratings below.

Balwyn North 12 Ajana: 'Mmmm - it is quiet today.' Toby Parker. Passed In $1,600,000, No bidders

Not much happening today, with one of the quietest non-holiday Boroondara auction weeks I can remember. There were 11 auctions and seven sold. In May we were running at four times this almost every week. Very few private sales either.

Bidderman was irrelevant on such small numbers. The highlights were:

3 Longstaff Kew East – Glen Coutinho of Hocking Stuart which had a crowd of 80 and 5 bidders and was bought for $1,413,000. This one was all about the renovation and not the position. It really was a matter of home over location. See our report and click onto our ratings below.

Read the full article...(estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

In much of our homebuying discussion, we often mention the supposed opposing forces of Risk v Reward.

We mention them because a lot of homebuyers don’t act with any level of risk v reward consciousness in the homebuying process – in other words, they often make decisions without considering that, for every action, there can be many reactions. In this changing market a number of sellers are now facing similar risk v reward scenarios.

There are four key risk v reward areas we would like to discuss today. Two directly relate to buyer actions and two are connected with the buyer but are more related to seller actions.

1. Offering
2. Process
3. Counter Offering
4. Agent Selection

Four financially powerful risk v reward firecrackers.

Read the full article...(estimated 4:48 mins reading time)

Risk v Reward

In much of our homebuying discussion, we often mention the supposed opposing forces of Risk v Reward.

We mention them because a lot of homebuyers don’t act with any level of risk v reward consciousness in the homebuying process – in other words, they often make decisions without considering that, for every action, there can be many reactions. In this changing market a number of sellers are now facing similar risk v reward scenarios.

There are four key risk v reward areas we would like to discuss today. Two directly relate to buyer actions and two are connected with the buyer but are more related to seller actions.

1. Offering
2. Process
3. Counter Offering
4. Agent Selection

Four financially powerful risk v reward firecrackers.

Read the full article...(estimated 4:49 mins reading time)

What is it with redheads? They're running the country - and now they're taking over the auctions. We counted six in this photo in amongst auctioneer Phillip Kingston from Gary Peer. 7A Nightingale St Kilda East. Bought After $1,200,000. 1 bidder.

At 6pm Saturday the James Clearance Rate on the 22 $M+ Auctions we covered was 59%.

Our Demand Indicator Bidderman was 2.2.  Hmmm – an interesting increase but it was off a very low turnover.

Today’s Highlights

1)      Bidders were present at 18 of the 22 auctions we covered –  and at three auctions there were 6+bidders

• 23 Sunburst Avenue Balwyn North (Doug McLauchlan of Marshall White)
• 12 Lennox St Hawthorn (Russell Turner of Christopher Russell)
• 7 Monomeath Avenue Toorak (Justin Long of Marshall White)

2)      The Pies are top of the ladder – and the election is on

Read the full article...(estimated 8:49 mins reading time)