The pandemic has sent auctions into overdrive, with Brisbane now pushing Sydney and Melbourne for the title of the auction capital of Australia.
Brisbane property auctions have long trailed the two bigger cities as a result of their less competitive property market, but according to one of Queensland’s leading auctioneers, that has changed dramatically since the pandemic began.
Justin Nickerson, a three-time Australasian Auctioneer of the Year, is director at Apollo Auctioneers and has seen first hand how market pressures have made auctions more popular than ever.
“Our local market in South East Queensland is interesting because we’ve always done auctions, but never to the level of volume that Sydney and Melbourne do,” he said. “They’ve always been the auction capitals.”
“Because their market is so strong, they’ve raised auctions as a mainstream way of selling, and it’s a belief in Australia that you need to have a white-hot market to run auctions successfully.”
“Since late last year here in Queensland, our market has been as hot as we’ve ever seen it, and that’s sped auctions up.”
“In Brisbane, the percentage of properties that go to auction has lifted heavily, to levels that for the first time are reaching Sydney and Melbourne. They’re larger so we’ll never be able to compete on a volume level but on a percentage level, we’re starting to compete.”
“What has happened with that is that not only have auctions performed as people expect – you have bidders, everyone claps and then goes home – it’s also showed the versatility. You can still run them when you are in lockdowns. It brings up this hybrid auction idea, where on-site auctions allow people to be there remotely via technology.”
“It’s a reflection that the market is now what was previously deemed necessary for auctions, which is limited supply and high demand. In all capital cities in Australia and New Zealand, that supply and demand has been heavily tilted in favour of the sellers for quite some time.”
“Auctions are the most transparent way of creating a competitive environment where the buyers can fight over the property, and where that starts is where the sellers tend to get good results.”
“We had one auction where we turned up and there were 48 registered bidders. That’s an extraordinary number. In normal times, the average was 2.4 bidders and now it’s 6, so it’s more than double what we would usually expect.”
“We’ve had 300 people at an auction. We’ve had new record prices being set for an area: an area that never broke $3m has gone there. That kind of thing has occurred more and more this year.”
