Case study · Hawthorn
A near-identical apartment in the same building sold at auction five weeks later for $845,000. Same building, same layout, $95,000 more.
| Suburb | Hawthorn, VIC 3122 |
|---|---|
| Purchase price | $750,000 |
| Method | Off-market, before the wider market |
| Comparable sale | $845,000 at auction, same building |
| Time between the two sales | 5 weeks |
| Bidders at that auction | 5 active |
| Difference | $95,000 |
| Client | Upsizing from a one-bedroom to a two-bedroom apartment |
Our client was living on her own in a one-bedroom apartment in Hawthorn and looking to upsize to a two-bedroom in the same area. A common brief, and a difficult one, because two-bedroom stock in the established Hawthorn blocks is tightly held and every other upsizer in the suburb is chasing the same apartments.
Hawthorn apartments in established blocks turn over quietly. Buyers watching the listing sites see one apartment at a time, at the same moment as everyone else. What they do not see is how many apartments in the same building are about to change hands, or which owners have already started talking to agents.
That gap in visibility is where the price difference in this case study came from.
We secured the apartment off-market, before it reached the wider market. Because the vendor had not taken the property to auction there was no date forcing a decision and no competing bidders setting the pace. We negotiated on the merits of the apartment and settled at $750,000.
Same building. Same layout. Five weeks apart. $95,000 more.
Five weeks later a near-identical apartment in the same building went to auction. Five active bidders competed for it. It sold for $845,000.
That $95,000 is not a valuation error. It is what competition costs. Our client paid what the apartment was worth to a vendor who wanted certainty. The auction buyer paid what it was worth to the last two people still bidding.
If you are only looking at what is advertised, you are seeing a fraction of what is available, and you are seeing it at the same moment as every other buyer in the suburb. Access to the stock that never gets listed is the difference between negotiating and bidding.
For an upsizer that difference is not abstract. It is the deposit on the next thing, or the renovation, or five weeks of your life spent at an auction you did not need to attend.
Buyer advocacy by LP Advisory, Melbourne. Suburb-level detail only. Prices are indicative and shared with permission; some details withheld for privacy.
It depends on the competition you avoid rather than on a fixed discount. In this Hawthorn case the off-market purchase was $750,000 and a near-identical apartment in the same building sold five weeks later at auction for $845,000, a difference of $95,000.
An off-market property is one sold without being publicly advertised. The vendor is willing to sell but has not listed, so the buyer negotiates directly rather than bidding against a field. Access usually comes through a buyers agent relationship with the selling agent.
The value is proportional to the competition, not the price bracket. Two-bedroom apartments in established Hawthorn blocks are tightly held and heavily contested, which is exactly the situation where getting in before the auction changes the price.
An auction sets the price at what the last two bidders are willing to pay. An off-market negotiation sets it at what the property is worth to a vendor who values certainty and speed. Those are different numbers, and the gap is the cost of competition.
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