Buyers seeking affordabile housing saw St Albans become the auction capital this weekend.
On Saturday the suburb had more auctions than anywhere else in the city – 15.
“Once competition for property increases you get more auctions, because sellers they can get those buyers to fight it out in the dust and maximise their price,” Domain chief economist Andrew Wilson says.
“There’s plenty of energy in the St Albans market now, with plenty of sales and plenty of listings.”
48 MULLHALL DRIVE (SUPPLIED)
Even with the fifteen auctions to choose from, one tired-looking house at 48 Mulhall Drive had five people bidding on it.
Ray White agent Tania Hansard said people are being priced out of areas like Sunshine and are flocking to St Albans.
“The market has been very strong, it started very noticeably last winter and it’s just been going up and up up,” Ms Hansard says.
“We get some auctions that go $200,000 over reserve.”
She was fielding telephone bids from an interstate investor at the Mulhall Drive auction on Saturday. In a scene that’s getting much more familiar, the Sydney investor won the auction for $465,000.
A LARGE CROWD WATCHED THE AUCTION OF 48 MULHALL DRIVE, WHICH WAS WON BY A SYDNEY INVESTOR. PICTURE: ALISTAIR WALSH
“We’re getting a lot of people buying from Sydney for investment. Here they can buy three properties for the price of one over there,” Ms Hansard says.
The vendor of 48 Mulhall Drive, Mirko Abicic, grew up in the area after emigrating from Croatia.
He says the suburb has always been the first call for new immigrants.
In his time it was the Croats, Greeks and Italians. Then it was the Vietnamese and more recently it’s been people from the Middle East and Africa.
Neighbour Branko Kezerle was born in St Albans and built the opposing house 29 years ago.
“St Albans has now become like an inner suburb. We used to be surrounded by open plains, endless paddocks and lots of big trees. Now it’s basically all developed right through for several kilometres in every direction,” he said.
By Alistair Walsh, Domain.
