Online real estate auctions see weakened market on pre-Easter Super Saturday

The pre-Easter Super Saturday online auction remnants found it tough to secure buyers across the capital cities today.

Melbourne's success rate was 30 percent.

Sydney scored a 39 percent preliminary success rate, according to Domain.

There was a 34 percent national clearance rate.

Domain reported there were originally 1224 auctions scheduled for Sydney, of which 36 per cent were shifted to private sale and 21 per cent to online auctions.

The status of a further 27 per cent was unclear.

Melbourne was set to have 1248 auctions, before 65 per cent became private treaty offerings and just six per cent shifted to online auction, with the status of another 18 per cent unclear.

The REINSW does not provide statistics, but CoreLogic advised there were just the 51 sales on Saturday across Sydney.

The REIV reported just 31 properties were sold at Saturday auction.

Dr Andrew Wilson at My Housing market put the Melbourne clearance rate at 29 percent.

Canberra saw a 46 percent success rate, according to realestate.com.au, while Queensland had a 20 percent clearance rate, Dr Wilson calculated.

It was 17 percent in Perth, according to realestate.com.au which adopts a different method without including withdrawn results.

Across the country, Ray White auction agents cleared 33 per cent of all stock under the hammer today but the campaign clearance number climbed to 57 per cent once all the sold priors were accounted for in this week’s tally. 

There was some Sydney success stories including 5 Park Street, Epping which sold through McGrath agent Betty Ockerlander at $1.32 million.

Auctioneer Troy Malcolm pointed out the auction guide was $1,150,000 to $1,265,000 to the 10 registered online bidders.

Some 138 viewers tuned in to see the opening bid of  $1,170,000

There were 54 bids from the five participating buyers.

In Sydney's Haberfield, the online auction of a two-bedroom semi-detached house at 238 Hawthorne Parade saw a cheeky $100,000 opening offer.

It was swiftly rejected with the next bid at $950,000, selling eventually at $1.22 million.

At 40a Brown St Newtown the top bid of $3,225,000 was not enough to secure the four bedroom property which had come with a $3 million Ray White price guide.

The GAVL online system secured a $1,060,000 sale at Merrylands.

There was a $1.065 million sale at Pretty Beach on the NSW Central Coast after attracting four registered bidders. The agents held more than 15 private inspections with local families looking for their dream home location.

The top sale in Sydney was secured pre-auction with $4.9 million paid for 24 Tipper Avenue, Bronte..

There was a $1.95 million top sale in Melbourne in Parkville through Buxton.

The price guide had been $1.85 million to $1.9 million.

McGrath saw a $1,060,000 sale when 24 Brigalow Street, O'Connor in the ACT went to auction through agent Maree Van Arkel

There four four registered bidders with just the two participating after the opening bid of $900,000.

Cameron Kusher, realestate.com.au’s executive director of economic research, says the COVID-19 pandemic is forcing property businesses to innovate “at a pace never seen before”.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced bans on public open for inspections and on-site auctions two weeks ago.

April was set to be relatively quiet after the traditional pre-Easter surge given the school holidays and Anzac break.

A significant number of intending May sellers will now wait and see given understandable health concerns about letting in strangers to their homes, and finding somewhere to be for that period of time.

There will also be rising doubts about getting their prices hopes that they had anticipated earlier this year.

The market still has buying activity, but not from new entrants, rather those who have sold and need to secure alternative premises.

The auction market in the good times in some suburbs represents a very high proportion of sales, but around 15 percent across the entire market.

At the moment it would be barely 5 percent, so buyers, sellers and agents will need to get their mindset into what's happening in the curtailed private treaty market.