Spooked sellers ran for the hills on the weekend, with nearly half of Melbourne’s vendors pulling out of their weekend auctions.
The second round of lockdown for Melbourne has increased uncertainty in the market and has obviously dealt a blow to already damaged confidence in the market.
Senior research analyst at Domain, Nicola Powell, spoke to Australian Financial Review regarding the latest setback to the economy and property market.
“Everyone is nervous,” she said.
“Concerns centre on fears of the pandemic spreading and its impact on economic growth, market sentiment and demand.”
Unsurprisingly, it was CBD apartments, off-the-plan and suburbs under lockdown that were hardest hit.
Right now real estate agents say there’s still demand for top-end Melbourne property and the market is embracing online bidding and property inspections under strict pandemic rules.
The Victorian Government had to ban public real estate auctions late last week in response to the current COVID outbreak in the city.
Buyers’ agent Cate Bakos told AFR, “After the first shutdown sales dropped off a cliff then rebounded”.
“I’m not seeing any evidence of buyers being particularly rattled.
“But we do not know what’s in store.”
Dan White from Ray White Real Estate said it was the uncertainty that had seller pulling their property off the market.
“Stock coming on the market is being absorbed,” he said.
Mr White told AFR around one third of his company’s listings were pulled on the weekend due to seller concerns about the coronavirus.
