Some Americans have been left gobsmacked by the way many houses are sold in Australia – but Aussies are unsure what all the fuss is about.
A clip of an auction in Melbourne went viral after a bemused New Yorker told his 50,000 followers on X, formerly Twitter, about the ‘crazy’ way Australians sold houses – and jokingly suggested they were keeping it from the world.
‘Think about all the Australians you’ve known,’ Stephen Smith wrote.
‘Maybe they’re your friends or coworkers. Maybe they’re serving you brunch….
‘But you know what they’re not serving you? The truth about how they sell homes.’
The clip, which has since amassed over 2.5 million views, prompted a deluge of similarly baffled responses.
‘This is real?’, one asked.
‘So a man stands in the literal street outside the house being sold and takes bids from anyone? Do the homeowners sit inside and listen? I have so many questions,’ another wrote.
Someone else quipped that the ‘American mind boggles at having an auction run by someone other than an unintelligible Texan and to sell something other than livestock’.
But the vast majority of responses were instead from Australians confused about the fact that people did not know this is how houses were sold in the country.
‘I’m Australian and I don’t understand what’s supposed to be secret about this,’ one said.
A clip of an auction in Melbourne went viral after a bemused New Yorker told his 50,000 followers on X, formerly Twitter, about the ‘crazy’ way Australians sold houses – and jokingly suggested they were keeping it from the world (stock image)
The clip, which has since amassed over 2.5 million views, prompted a deluge of similarly baffled responses (stock image)
‘Wait.. doesn’t every other country sell houses through auction?? Surely this isn’t unique to Australia?’, another said.
Others said it often served as a great social occasion for neighbours.
‘Not only are most Australian homes sold this way, it’s often a big, impromptu street event too,’ they said.
‘Last house on my road that sold at auction in Sydney had about 100 people attend, and all my neighbours had a drink together. It’s great!’
Another said that ‘going to auctions is like a Saturday sport here in Sydney’.
Meanwhile, others defended the auction process, arguing that it allowed every bid to be above board and reduced the stress of making a bid only to have it rejected.
‘It may be theatrical, but it’s transparent. None of this American undercover lying about who bid what,’ they wrote.
‘No gazumping, contract signed, deposit paid, cooling off period for finance approval, both sides move to settlement – the auctioneers are clowns but the process is a much better way of maintaining certainty for both vendor and purchaser and very few sales fall over as a result,’ another said.
Others, however, were more critical of the auction system.
‘This is the one instance of ”Americans being baffled and appalled by Australian behaviours” where they are 100 per cent correct,’ one said.
Over 13 per cent of houses and units sold in Australia this year have been by auction, according to PropTrack data
Another added: ‘I’ve bought two houses in my life and probably paid 300 per cent over market value to avoid attending these perverted little auctions.’
Isa Hafalir, University of Technology Sydney economics professor , has lived in both Australia and the US and has first-hand experience of buying properties in each.
He said auctions were ‘very rarely’ used in the US but were popular in Australia because of the competitive real estate market
‘In Australia, real estate agents and auctioneers want the neighbours to come and a big group of people, even if they are not serious buyers, because it has this kind of psychological effect that this is hot property and many people are interested in it, Professor Hafalir told news.com.au.
He said it was also a more transparent process for buyers because they could see who bid what – unlike in the US where parties can offer above or below the asking price.
Over 13 per cent of houses and units sold in Australia this year have been by auction, according to PropTrack data.
It is most popular in the ACT at 27 per cent, 22 per cent in Victoria and 20 per cent in NSW.
The figures for other states and territories were far lower – a fact reflected in some of the responses to the viral video.
‘Very few houses in Western Australia are sold by auction. It’s very much a Sydney and Melbourne thing,’ one person said.