AUCTIONS AREN'T DEAD, THEY'RE JUST SLEEPING

Whilst the dramatic slump in spring auction clearance rates is unfortunate, every agent worth their salt in the market knew it was coming.

The predictable fallout from the Banking Royal Commission that has caused finance approval times to blow right out and buyers having to jump through an increasing number of hoops as banks try and comply with the ‘responsible lending’ code minefield, has meant the environment for selling by auction has become temporarily unfavourable.

The clearly unfavourable environment has also made it difficult for responsible agents to recommend auctioning property right now which is why the number of properties being put up for auction recently has also slumped with agents who disregarded the writing on the wall and recommended auctioning anyway now realising the peril of their decision. Not are they having the indignity of selling as few as 1 in 6 of their properties (or less) instead of the normal spring 5 in 6 but are also having to face the ‘I told you so’ wrath of owners.

So does this spell the end of the property auction market?

Absolutely not. The auction market as it has done in the past whenever changed conditions have required will adjust and before too long with some fine tuning to processes that will likely include longer auction programmes and more properties sold prior to or post auction than previously will revert to business as usual.

In normal times there is no better way to establish the optimum current market value of a property than a well handled on site auction and as soon as the dust from the recent politicisation of property settles and any required adjustments to the auction process adopted, auctions will quickly resume their rightful place as the spearhead of the sales market.

JOHN JOHNSTON – Chief Auctioneer
0409 44 33 22