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Auctions may not be popular in Perth but a number of the city’s real estate professionals still see benefits in encouraging more vendors to consider the selling method.
“The auction market has been uncertain in WA for two or three years, but we are trying to push auctions because even if the property doesn’t sell, it’s still a good indicator of what it’s worth,” Harcourt’s Western Australia CEO, Stuart Cox, told Real Estate Business.
“It just takes some uncertainty out of the market.”
The auction market in Perth has been very flat, with around nine properties put to auction by Harcourts in February.
Richard Kerr, an award winning auctioneer, has been called in by Harcourts WA to help push auctions with sellers. He also agrees it’s a win-win situation.
“It’s the best result for sellers and for buyers,” he said.
“It benefits the buyer with a more transparent look on things like cost. And it benefits the seller because it has a deadline, which in my experience, 85 per cent of the time will be sold on the day or before.
“And if it isn’t, most properties get sold in the following ten days anyway.”
“At my former company in [Perth] 2005 to 2007, we heard the ‘auctions don’t work here’, but we gave it a go and it was a roaring success… I’m not worried about the sentiment toward auctions.”
Auctions also help reduce time on market through its deadline-focused structure. According to RP Data, as at February Perth had a median time on market of 77 days for both units and houses.
Ben Ciocca, principal at Provincial Real Estate, located in the Hills region of Perth, said he hoped auctions will take off.
“We have hardly any auctions at all, but I would love to see more,” he told Real Estate Business.
“I guess it just shows that Perth is a little behind the other capitals in that respect.
“But we do auctions in other ways. We invite offers over a timeframe, so a private treaty with a deadline, and essentially stretch-out the auction process.” Says Mr Ciocca.
But Richard Kerr thinks other principals won’t be so accepting.
“There will be a certain amount of people who hate auctions, no matter what. But the results will speak for themselves.”
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