Buyers' agent David Morrell says top end Melbourne bubble prices can't be justified

Buyers' agent David Morrell says top end Melbourne bubble prices can't be justified
Jonathan ChancellorJune 21, 2015

The Melbourne buyers' advocate David Morrell says he is finding it "incredibly hard to buy because you cannot justify the prices."

He said most reserves were being passed easily.

"Are we in a bubble? Of course we are. It just depends who is caught with the parcel," he said.

"But in my opinion, it is incredibly hard to buy because you cannot justify the prices," he suggested in his regular Monday auction roundup in the Australian Financial Review.

He recently blogged "the really bubbling bubble" is at $1 million to $5 million.

He pointed the finger at a June $4.66 million Armadale sale (photo below) at 39 Lambeth Avenue — "a street where anything starting with a $4 would be hard to justify." 

39 Lambeth Avenue, Armadale

Only a month ago Morrell wasn't calling it a bubble.

"Our suspicion is that this isn’t a bubble, it’s a jumping castle.

"Frenetic leaps until it springs a leak and then a slow deflate."

But another Melbourne buyers' agent Mal James continues finding homes for clients, noting while typically at well above agent estimates, they have been rarely above his own price appraisals.

Jonathan Chancellor

Jonathan Chancellor is one of Australia's most respected property journalists, having been at the top of the game since the early 1980s. Jonathan co-founded the property industry website Property Observer and has written for national and international publications.

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