Melbourne and Sydney property markets return to strength after slow Queen’s Birthday weekend

It’s been another strong weekend of auction results for Sydney and Melbourne, with both major cities rebounding to strengths seen prior to last week’s long weekend.

In Melbourne, 740 properties were auctioned with a clearance rate of 70%, according to the Real Estate Institute of Victoria, making it one of the most successful weekends on record following the Queen’s Birthday for the property market.

This time last year, the clearance rate in Melbourne was 65% and in 2011 it was only 53%.

Auction rates in Sydney are now tracking well above the highs of three years ago, with the weekend clearance rate hitting 76.9% of the 458 properties listed with Australian Property Monitors.

There were strong results in Sydney’s northern suburbs such as Balgowlah Heights and Milsons Point, sparking a possible resurgence of the premium market, which has so far trailed the lower and middle markets this year.

A four bedroom house on Lewis St in Balgowlah Heights sold for $2.755 million, while the most affordable property in Sydney went for $360,000, a three bedroom house in Lurnea.

In Melbourne, the property market is now experiencing a higher volume of auctions compared to the past two years and the REIV estimates there will have been 3175 auctions conducted by the end of June.

Urban Property Australia founder Sam Tamblyn says the Melbourne property market is going from strength to strength.

“There have been some very impressive auction results, it’s clear that there has been a shift in the market, specifically in the inner city Melbourne.

“Some stellar results include two houses in Toorak being sold for $1.86 and $1.82 million, hundreds of thousands of dollars over reserve. We’re seeing fixed rate financing from the banks and interest rates dropping and this is having a positive response in the market with more people buying,” he says.

Tamblyn says people still need to be wary, but overall there have been positive results from the property market and increasing number of overseas investors are buying up apartments in Melbourne.

“From an investment property point of view, the majority of investors are offshore or Asian investors. There are still local investors, but by and large the majority participating in the inner city apartment boom are offshore or from the Asian groups.

“There are some attractive terms at the moment to purchase property, but they can only buy brand new properties, not previously existing ones, so they’re being forced into the off-the-plan market,” he says.

According to APM results, the most expensive property in Melbourne was a five bedroom house in Sandringham which went for $2.472 million, but experts say off-market properties are selling for more.

The Australian Financial Review reported this morning a Toorak home may have broken the record for the most expensive property ever sold, rumoured to have sold for $25 million, surpassing the previous record of $24 million. A home in the Melbourne suburb of Kew is also reported to have sold for $7 million.

The strong results from this past Saturday and Sunday come after a slow Queen’s Birthday weekend where only 245 properties were listed in Sydney and 143 in Melbourne, according the APM.