Auctioneer Mitch Peereboom takes five registered bidders to auction at 61 Bushland Drive, Regents Park in the first auction weekend of the year.
COVID chaos fed in to the first auction weekend of the year with cancelled or delayed auction campaigns signalling a very different start to the auction year in 2022.
“The tenants tested positive even before we got to the door, there’s nothing we can do,” Ray White Marsden lead agent Tammie Lor said of a Goodna auction campaign that was due to start on Saturday.
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“With Covid cases rising, if people test positive they have to isolate for seven days so that is holding back the launching of properties to the market. We are going to have to live with that or start to get used to it because we didn’t have to deal with that last year. We are going to have to look at virtual auctions again.”
Only 18 properties went to auction across Queensland on Saturday in a soft launch ahead of the true start of the 2022 summer of auctions on January 22/23.
On the Sunshine Coast, around 30 people turned up to the auction of 44 Mary St, Alexandra Headland on Saturday to be told that the auction had been cancelled, the massive weather event overnight coupled with the state’s Covid emergency prompting the seller to move to a private treaty sale with offers of $4m invited.
The auction of 44 Mary St, Alexandra Headland was cancelled at the last minute with Town Sunshine Coast agent Craig Porter informing bidders but having to turn away around 30 onlookers.
Agents across the state reported they were not seeing the frenzy of buyer activity which heralded the start of 2021 and with borders open, Covid spreading, and people no longer needing to buy property sight unseen, the market was settling.
But outer Brisbane suburbs still put on a show, with 21 bidders at the auction of 8 Lexington Place, Wishart, solidifying that suburb’s status as one of the most in-demand suburbs in the country, with the five-bedroom house selling to local buyers for $1.33m.
This home at Wishart attracted 21 bidders including a buyer from Hong Kong.
“This was a 13-day campaign and we had over 100 groups through in those 13 days,” Harcourts Beyond agent Henry Wong said.
“I see property climbing this year. As to how much more no one can really say. Before when Covid hit they said prices would come down but they didn’t, they went the other way. This could be a repeat of 2020.”
Nicole Gourley and Mark Townsend of Ipswich and Brisbane’s bayside walked away from the auction of 61 Bushland Drive, Regents Park on Saturday, content to keep renting and watch the year unfold.
Nicole Gourley and Mark Townsend at the auction of 61 Bushland Drive, Regents Park.
“We’re not rushing in to buying anything,” Mr Townsend said.
“All my mortgage mates are saying hold off, people are panicking and it’s pushing prices up, but interest rates are going to move and people who borrowed to the max are going to be squeezed.”
The three-bedroom home at 61 Bushland Drive, Regents Park
With boots covered in mud and grass cuttings after working at his Boston Tree Care business all morning, Jamie Boston made a late entrance at the auction of 61 Bushland Drive but his wife had saved him a spot under the covered entertaining area and after a three-month search to secure their first home, the couple stretched their limit to beat four other bidders and pay $586,000 for the three-bedroom home.
Jamie and Laura Boston have just bought their first home, through Tammie Lor of Ray White Marsden.
“Literally today’s earnings from my business might be the extra that we needed,” Mr Boston said. “We’ve been looking for three months. It’s been solid, like a full-time job.
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