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Ray White SA | NT chief auctioneer John Morris at the auction of 4 Chapman St, Rostrevor.
To cap off the 2022-23 financial year, the leading auction agency had 5.01 registered bidders on average attending auctions in June. This number was up from 3.8 registered bidders just 12 months ago. Average active bidder numbers also finished on a strong note as the group recorded 2.9 bidders actively participating per auction across the country in June.
The group’s clearance rate ended at 65 per cent in June and was one of the highest monthly clearance rates recorded over the past financial year which began at 57.4 per cent in July last year.
During the 12 month period, Ray White scheduled 25,116 auctions - this number was down just under 12 per cent on the financial year prior which is in-line with the low level of new listings. The financial year saw a 61 per cent clearance rate across the time period, 4.2 average registered bidders and 2.6 average active bidders per auction.
Owner occupiers made up the bulk of auction buyers over the past financial year at 77.2 per cent while investors made up 20.8 per cent nationally.
Only 1.6 per cent of all auction buyers were from overseas while the number of interstate buyers dropped to seven per cent, meanwhile 90 per cent of auction buyers identified as locals.
Ray White chief economist Nerida Conisbee (pictured above) said the group’s auction data shows buyer levels are still strong.
“Based on our auction data, particularly bidding activity, we could see that conditions really started to turn at the end of last year and the momentum in price growth was not a ‘dead cat bounce’ but an earlier than expected return to growth,” she said.
“There are a lot of ways you can look at demand for property. You can look at housing finance, population growth and even online clicks. Bidding at auction however gives us a real time measure of activity. If someone actually bids on a property, you can be reasonably assured that they are in the market and ready to buy.
“Last year, average active bidders nationally hit a low of 2.2 in November 2022. This was the lowest level since April 2020, the first full month of the pandemic. At a more localised level, the trough occurred much earlier in Sydney where it hit a low in June 2022. Sydney average active bidding is now back to where it was in November 2021.”
The top sale of the financial year was a 4,784.5ha property in Garah, New South Wales (pictured above). “Welbon”, which is situated in the highly fertile north west slopes and plains of New South Wales, sold for $33 million under the hammer through Ray White Rural Moree principal Ed Wisemantel in April this year.
The property was sold by the Carrigan family, with Alexander Carrigan purchasing the property which included 8,000 sheep, from the Scottish Land Co in 1923. Chris Carrigan increased the area in 1985 with the purchase of the adjoining Duravale and then part of Gilbunna in 1988 to bring it up to the total. Five buyers registered to bid while three bidders threw their hat in the ring with local grower Andrew Yates casting the winning bid.
It was a Brisbane auction that attracted the highest number of registered bidders at a Ray White auction nationally. Ray White Mount Gravatt principal Grant Boman sold 19 Mindona St, Wishart (pictured above) to an audience of 58 bidders in April. The five bedroom house sold for $1.419 million while 20 buyers actively bid at the office’s weekly in-room auction event.
In December, Ray White Upper North Shore agent Thomas Merriman also gathered a record number of bidders for his Block-style on-site auction event on Mount Pleasant Ave, Normanhurst, taking nine neighbouring properties to auction back-to-back.
Mr Merriman had a total of 65 registered bidders attend on the day and sold all nine properties, for a total of more than $13 million. All nine properties were sold by the Seventh Day Adventist Church with the proceeds of the sale going towards service apartments for nurses from the Sydney Adventist Hospital in Wahroonga.
