Super Saturday in February: Damien Cooley
GUEST OBSERVER
Super Saturday is coming early for Cooley Auctions with 100 homes set to go under the hammer on February 25 - a personal best for the successful team.
Looking back at the same weekend over the past five years, February has never looked hotter for Cooley Auctions. Only 2014 came close with 97 auctions in one day, but this year will smash that record.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Sydney cracks 1,000 auctions. It's definitely going to be a very big day.
There are already 926 auctions scheduled for February 25 according to APM price finder figures, but that number could be higher on the day.
With so many homes on the auction block on one day, the Cooley Auctions team will be far busier than the same weekend last year when there were 66 auctions scheduled. In 2015 there were 83 auctions on the corresponding Saturday.
All eyes turn to February as the month when consumers and industry insiders can truly gauge how the year's auction season will shape up.
It's extremely important that the day passes the acid test. If the market goes well on a big Saturday with big volumes then the indication will be that the market is in a really good position to continue through the Easter period and most likely well into the first half of 2017.
If the autumn season starts with a bang then it almost always guarantees that the winter market will be hot. However, timing is everything.
Super Saturday usually comes just before Easter, but Easter this year is in mid April which is actually really good news for agents.
Agents can capitalise on that time frame. When Easter is a little bit later it means that we get a couple more weeks of auctions in before the holiday weekend.
Despite 2017 barely being two months in, the Sydney auction scene is already showing signs of market sentiment.
Honestly, I think there is a bit of fear about. A lot of vendors are trying to come onto the market as early as they can because there's a lot of talk of a market correction. There is a fear of missing out on the peak of the market which is absolutely a contributing factor to the number of auctions on February 25.
With such a bumper February that will see 403 auctions in the bag, Cooley Auctions is gearing up for a busy 2017. The closest February auction numbers were back in 2015 when the firm clocked up 379 auctions for the shortest month of the year and subsequently went on to perform more than 6,000 auctions over the 12-month period.
Damien Cooley, managing director of Cooley Auctions and can be contacted here.
