Melbourne and Sydney properties sell under the hammer as tipping competition winds down

Only two rounds to go in the final season of 2012 and MC, last season’s winner, has risen to the top of the Melbourne leader board. He is less than $100,000 ahead of Rainbow and Jorgo, who are still tied in second place.

There’s a website, www.propertytycoon.com.au, where punters can guess what they think properties will sell for at their weekend auctions in Melbourne and Sydney. This season Property Observer readers have their own competition, which you can access here. The winner of the overall competition will win $1,000.

Spike has almost $1 million lead in Sydney and is the box seat to take out the title, ahead of Nan63 and Davidk9. However, with around $10 million of property up for grabs in the final two rounds it is not over just yet.

At 213 Station Street, Carlton North (pictured below), the top end of the quote range was lifted to $900,000 in the late stages of the campaign. This sent a clear signal to the market that it was going to be a competitive auction.

When Tom Roberts from Nelson Alexander started the auction, however, it appeared as though the buyers had stayed home, as he was forced to start with a vendor bid of $800,000. Two bidders eventually came to the party and when bidding stalled at $920,000 the agents went inside to seek further instructions

When the agents returned the words “we are on the market” kicked the auction into another gear as a third bidder emerged. After a flurry of bidding, the property sold $50,000 above the reserve at $970,000.

In Sydney Kerrie Robertson from LJ Hooker sold 28 Coolaroo Road, Lane Cove (pictured below), under the hammer but has insisted the result in undisclosed.

This is the bizarre reality of the Australian property market where a property can be sold in the most public of forums yet the result kept private.

The penultimate round of properties will be revealed at 5pm today.