By Charlene Gatt
GOING once, going twice… sold!
Kingsville has emerged as one of Melbourne’s auction hot spots, with 78 per cent of homes sold in the area going under the hammer.
According to data from the Real Estate Institute of Victoria, only the suburbs of Windsor, Essendon West, Kingsville South, Kingsbury and Alphington posted similar proportions of homes put up for auction.
Around the municipality, Yarraville homes were also likely to be sold at auction, with up to 75 per cent of homes sold in the area going to auction.
But home owners in Braybrook, Footscray, Maidstone and Maribyrnong prefer to sell their properties through private sales, with all suburbs boasting a less than 50 per cent auction rate.
“Yarraville and Seddon are probably a little more expensive, where Kingsville, comparably, still represents pretty good value,” Jas H Stephens senior sales consultant Branko Lemaic said.
“It’s a good entry point. Kingsville is only a small pocket of real estate, so the supply is very limited and the properties don’t come on the market as often as they do in Yarraville and Seddon.
“Limited supply always equals high demand.”
Mr Lemaic said he generally recommended clients put their homes to auction, because they create a sense of urgency and allow possible buyers to compete in a transparent manner.
“It gives you the best of both worlds.
“You can always sell the property prior to the auction if you have a good offer, obviously if there’s potential competition there we’d suggest that the vendor let it be contested at a public auction and if it doesn’t sell, then it reverts back to a private sale.”
REIV spokesperson Robert Larocca said homes close to Melbourne’s CBD were more likely to go to auction.
“There tends to be a trend in some suburbs for auction sales to predominate and that’s been the case in Kingsville,” Mr Larocca said.
REIV data shows more people opt to sell their homes privately when the property market is slow, but are happy to put their homes to auction when there is a strong market.
