Auction or private sale in a bleaker market?

PHOTO: FSBO – For sale by owner

This is still a market where deals can be done. But unless your property is likely to generate bidding competition, selling under the hammer may be a bad idea.

Winter has arrived early for the property market in Australia’s big cities. May is supposed to be a productive month for estate agents. The Easter and Anzac Day hiatus is over and vendors and buyers should be looking to close deals before the mid-year slowdown.

Not this May. Volumes will reflect July numbers rather than May. For instance, in the first weekend of this month, auction numbers were down by a third against the corresponding period in 2018, according to CoreLogic. The drop will be especially pronounced in Victoria, where the Real Estate Institute of Victoria is expecting fewer than 2500 auctions this month, down from 4300 a year ago.

It’s not just a case of auctions being out of favour. Total capital city new listings over the past 28 days are down 30 per cent compared with a year ago.