Election day 2019 was the inflection point of our last market cycle.
It was the bottom, the nadir, of a very challenging market correction that saw prices in Stonnington fall by as much as 10 to 20 percent from the November 2017 peak, with clearance rates wallowing in the 40’s and 50’s for many months.
It is unlikely that this year’s election on May 21st will have as much bearing on house prices.
The axing of negative gearing is off the table this time around and a change in government or some minor tweaks in budget stimulus pertaining to real estate (e.g. first home buyer schemes) will be overshadowed by the biggest driver and current headwind of property prices… interest rates.
With this in mind, the election is not factoring as a major consideration in most of our clients’ plans to sell. That is to say, we haven’t come across many potential vendors who are waiting to see what happens with the election before they list their property.
May is going to be a high volume month of auctions and sales, it always is. But particularly this year with Easter being late and April being a clunky month to campaign.
Having said that, most vendors will choose to avoid holding their auction on election day itself, purely for the fact that buyers may be distracted and/or busy at the polling stations.
This means we will have a higher than usual number of midweek auctions on the 18th, 19th, 25th and 26th of May.
May 28th will likely be a ‘super Saturday’ with well over 1000 auctions scheduled.
There may be some out-of-the-box thinking vendors who choose to auction on election day itself to stand apart from the crowd and face less competition from other auctions.
All power to them!
One thing we have learnt since COVID is that it does not matter when or how you hold your auction – Tuesday at 2pm via Zoom, Wednesday at 6:30pm on site, or Saturday at 11am – if buyers want to buy the property they will make themselves available and compete.
As the sun was setting last Wednesday we held a successful auction at 13 Woodfull Street, Prahran with a big crowd watching two motivated buyers fight it out above reserve.
An hour earlier I knocked down another home at 1a Hopetoun Grove, South Yarra, in front of an equally eager crowd and three bidders.
Apparently 25 percent of auctions in Melbourne are now held during the week.
The midweek auction is catching on, and for good reason.
Watch this space.
We will be back next week with more than 20 properties hitting the market from our office alone.
Have a wonderful Easter and thanks for reading.
Feature Property: 66 Tivoli Road, South Yarra
David Sciola 