Auctions market thrown into chaos, vendors likely to postpone ahead of AFL Grand Final rematch

The property market has been thrown into chaos ahead of the AFL Grand Final replay this coming Saturday, with experts suggesting many vendors will choose to postpone auctions rather than risk a low turnout.

The comments come after the market had some of its lowest results for the year, with most vendors postponing their sales due to the event.

With an unexpected replay to go ahead this Saturday, real estate experts say the fate of some 500 auctions is up in the air. Vendors have two choices: postpone their auction for another day, or week, or go ahead and risk a low turnout.

But Adrian Jones of Noel Jones real estate says despite the uncertainty, most agents will be telling their vendors to simply reschedule.

“All agents handling schedules for the next week will be talking to their vendors, and it’s not very hard to add another 24 hours to the schedule. It has relatively little marketing impact, all you have to do is replace stickers on boards, change your internet listings and there you have it.”

Jones says it is possible that buyers may be able to pick up some bargains this weekend due to the low turnout, but he says that is unlikely. Instead, he thinks vendors will simply move their auctions to earlier in the day or postpone until Sunday or the following week.

“That is possibly true, but vendors have to agree to sell them. Theoretically that is correct, but in reality it’s not going to happen. They’re either going to move them earlier in the day or move them to Sunday.”

“Decisions will be made in the next 24 hours and any agent who doesn’t recommend to their vendor that they consider rescheduling should reconsider whether they are giving good advice.”

REIV spokesman Robert Larocca says it’s more likely vendors will be advised to postpone.

“I know a number of our agencies are certainly advising vendors to do that. As it stands we are expecting 585 auctions this weekend, and there are around 50 or so that are from 2.30pm onwards and another 50 at 2pm. These are the ones vendors will be thinking most about.”

“We’ve got a feed at the moment of what the advertising is doing, so the moment they update the public then we’ll know.”

But Anthony Ishaac, general manager of Australian Property Monitors, says it may be a little too early to tell just yet. While he suggests many vendors will head towards rescheduling, he says the market won’t have a definitive answer until mid-week when decisions on advertising have been made.

“It’s really hard to say what’s going to happen. I’ve never lived through a period like this, so I think no doubt there will be some auctions that will be rescheduled. But I do think it’s going to be difficult for the typical Melbourne week, which often has over 600 auctions scheduled.”

“It’s a difficult one and we’ll have a better idea of what’s happening in the next day or so because we’ll be receiving data. At the moment it’s pure speculation.”

As the market expected, the weekend’s auction results were poor. In Melbourne, only 65 auctions went ahead with 52 selling and 13 passed on, but there was no clearance rate reported due to the total number of auctions being under 100.

In Sydney, 227 out of 333 properties sold, resulting in a clearance rate of 60% and total sales worth $193.7 million. In Adelaide, 11 properties sold with a clearance rate of 61%, while in Brisbane, only nine properties sold out of 32, resulting in a clearance rate of 28% and sales worth $5.7 million.