, but top-quality homes – renovated, well-located or in a popular school catchment – are still highly sought after, experts say.
C-grade properties – those in need of serious work, located on main roads or compromised by power lines through the block – were finding no bidders and taking a 10 or 15 per cent hit, he said.“A-grade is still doing very well, B-grade is doing well, and C-grade: we’re calling them doughnuts because no one is going,” Mr Kelaher said, though he noted that even top properties in some markets had been subject to a slowdown due to extra supply coming onto the market.
“The sting has come out of the tail,” he said. “Unless you’ve got something that is somewhat unique, people are less urgent to buy.” The Victorian home on a double block had been renovated but retained period details. It featured four bedrooms, a swimming pool, an extra studio space/home office and outdoor entertaining area.
Buyer’s agent Henny Stier, co-founder of OH Property Group, said the increase in homes for sale had eased the sense of buyer urgency, with fewer people now settling for properties that she dubbed “lemons”: those with significant pest and building issues, bad topography or without backyards. Homes in need of a lot of work, or in heritage or conservation areas, were also not clearing as well.
A-grade properties were still doing fine, though, as were knockdown-rebuilds on good blocks of land. But the appeal of buying the worst house on the best street to get into a preferred market had worn off. Given the high cost of fixer-uppers to begin with and the increased renovation costs and build times, more buyers were prepared to risk waiting, and to pay more to secure a renovated home, Ms Stier said.
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elizabethredman Popular school catchment is no surprise. The public system has much variance. There’s good, bad and ugly public schools.