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Category: Housing Industry / House and Home

Why selling your home in winter may not be a bad idea

Wednesday, 10 Aug 2016 10:17:43 | Simon Leo Brown

Greville Pabst says selling in winter can often bring the best price for a vendor. (774 ABC Melbourne: Simon Leo Brown)

Traditional wisdom dictates that you should not sell a house in Melbourne during winter, but a real estate expert says that advice may not apply in the current market.

Greville Pabst, executive chairman of WBP Property Group, said it was true that many properties may not present as well in the winter months.

"You do have some construction issues where you might see some dampness occur, and it's obviously colder and a bit unpleasant," he told 774 ABC Melbourne's Hilary Harper.

But he said waiting until spring to auction your property may not guarantee you a better price.

"Often in winter I see the best results," he said.

Supply lower, but demand still there

He said in his experience vendors could often get better results in winter than in spring because of the laws of supply and demand.

"There's still a pool of buyers looking to get into the market," he said.

He said those buyers were competing for a smaller number of properties.

"The agents that I do speak with are telling me that there is quite a shortage of stock," he said.

"I think over the next few weeks we're going to continue to see some really strong results.

"In the spring, yes everything looks better, but there's a lot more competition, there's a lot more stock."

He said the past few weekends have seen only 500 to 600 properties go to auction.

But he said clearance rates — the number of properties sold — had been "phenomenal".

An east Melbourne suburb, viewed from above. Photo: Houses present better in spring, says Greville Pabst, but that may not lead to a better price. (774 ABC Melbourne: Simon Leo Brown)

The clearance rate for Melbourne auctions last Saturday was 78 per cent.

"In the spring we have clearance rates generally a bit lower," Mr Pabst said.

"That's because we have over double the stock — we have those super Saturdays where we have over 1,000 auctions."

Avoid grand final day, sellers warned

People currently considering selling their home in spring should make sure that their campaign is not interrupted by events such as the AFL grand final.

He said vendors should ensure most people were free to inspect their property each weekend that it was open.

"Make sure that you get at least five consecutive weekends," he said.

"If you can get an uninterrupted campaign you'll find that quite often you'll get a better result."

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