Melbourne sellers rush early sales ahead of Cup weekend auction – realestate.com.au

Melbourne goes from the busiest auction weekend of the year to one of the quietest, with about 460 homeowners testing the market after more than 1,700 did so a week earlier.

The pseudo-long weekend with Melbourne Cup Day on Tuesday is behind the decline, and has also led to a rush of homes sold ahead of schedule. Many sellers seemed to have closed a deal in advance over the past seven days.

Prominent buyer’s agent and new chair of Property Investment Professionals of Australia, Cate Bakos, said agents and sellers in November and December were more likely to jump on an early offer than risk a home coming in, and were still concerned about upcoming offers “cannibalizing” buyers in the next few weeks.

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“And this week I had an agent say they would wrap things up on Friday because they were thinking about using the long weekend (for a break),” Ms. Bakos said.

Still, some of the early sales will give hope to sellers going to auction this weekend.

Arguably one of Melbourne’s slimmer houses, a five-metre wide property at 225 Burnely St, Richmond, which sold midway through a renovation, shot almost $150,000 above expectations and sold for $1,032,500 after a buyer made an early offer more than a week before the auction.

At 5 meters wide, the Burnely St house is one of the narrower offerings in Melbourne.

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The house has been partially renovated and has attracted a large group of builders interested in finishing the job.

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Although it was set to go under the hammer today, Tom Alexiadis of Nelson Alexander said the house was auctioned a week earlier with four active bidders after 175 groups inspected it.

The buyer was a builder who was calling and texting from his car, drinking a cup of coffee and chatting with a friend next to him.

“It’s the funniest auction I’ve had in years,” Mr. Alexiadis said.

The estate agent added that he had two more houses up for auction over the next two weeks that would be sold ahead of schedule, including a townhouse at 9/46 Westgarth St, Northcote, and a family home at 32 Gordon St, Northcote.

9/46 Westgarth St, Northcote, is being offered following an earlier-than-planned auction.

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32 Gordon Grove, Northcote, was another house that sold weeks ahead of schedule.

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“We have had a week full of executive auctions caused by buyers who did not want to wait,” said Alexiadis.

“Sometimes we receive offers in the first week from buyers who have been looking for a while.”

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