Paul Castran - CEO - Castran Gilbert

MELBOURNE’s auction market had its highest clearance rate over the weekend since the end of the property boom in December 2007.

Of 452 properties up for auction, 83 per cent sold and 77 properties passed in!

However, the number of properties for auction was 126 fewer than at the same time last year!

The CEO of Real Estate Institute of Victoria attributed the high clearance rate to the extension of the first-home buyer’s grant announced in last week’s federal Budget, combined with low interest rates and an increase in investor numbers.

“It’s off a low base. There were not a lot of auctions,” Mr Raimondo said.

The part of the market performing really well is priced at or below the medium of about $410,000.

The next two weeks we expect to see just under 1300 auctions, which is a very high number of auctions at this time of the year.

“I expect the clearance rate to remain high until the September 30 when the full first-home owner’s boost will be phased out.”

Flat and apartment clearances were also very strong: 90 per cent of 136 properties at auction sold.

The latest residential land report from the Housing Industry Association revealed Melbourne’s median land price grew 0.7 per cent in the December quarter to a record $152,000.

The HIA-RP Data residential land report showed the price of land in Melbourne was up 4.8 per cent over the year.

The median land price in regional Victoria fell 2.8%in the December quarter to $97,250, the lowest price since mid-2007!

The value of our Aussie homes increased in the first quarter of the year, bucking a global trend downwards believe it or not!

House and flat prices in Australia increased in value by 1.6% in the first three months of the year, helped by a scarcity of supply, lower interest rates and incentives to first-home buyers.

The slight recovery in Australia “has primarily been driven by the 40% fall in home loan rates down to 5.7%, which are now at their lowest since July 1968!”

March’s three-month gain follows a 0.1% rise in the three months to February in the              RP Data-Rismark’s national dwelling value index, and a 3% fall in the value of “cap” city homes in 2008.

The strength of Australian housing prices is a world away – well so far - from the 2.7% drop in British home prices over the first quarter, capping a year to March a whopping 17.5% plunge!

US housing didn’t fare too much better, with prices in the top 20 cities sinking 1.9% in February, which brought the 12-month fall to 18.6%, according to the most recent     S&P/Case-Shiller index, a widely followed measure.

RP Data-Rismark said the first-home buyer’s grant, ending on June 30, has acted like a catalyst for new home buying in Australia, but lower interest rates are sustaining the market’s growth.