THE surprisingly rapid and robust recovery of Melbourne’s auction market, partly fuelled by a severe shortage of stock, seeped further into the suburbs at the weekend with fierce competition for everything from ’60s villa units to townhouses. The clearance rate was 84 per cent and many lower-priced properties had four or five bidders. Buxton’s Mark Rogers had a strong weekend with buyers drawn to the good-value buying of ’60s villa units and a house-sized townhouse. At 1/17-19 Pyne Street, Caulfield South, a two-bedroom brick villa unit sold for $495,000, about $50,000 above reserve. Mr Rogers said similar villa units in the same street had sold only weeks ago for below $450,000. “I think the market has gone up 10-15 per cent in the past four to five weeks,” he said. These 40-year-old villa units represented good buying as they were larger than many modern townhouses and their strata title meant the block couldn’t be redeveloped, so they held little appeal for developers. Five bidders fought over an 11-year-old, three-bedroom townhouse at 13A Ames Avenue, Carnegie, pushing it past the expected $650,000 price to sell for $716,000.Mr Rogers said stock levels were so low buyers were being “funnelled into what is available and being forced to compete for it”. The weekend also produced some strong results in bayside Elwood.
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