Price guides in Australia are quickly becoming obsolete. (Nathan Stirk, Getty Images)
Some Sydney and Melbourne houses have been selling for more than a million dollars above the reserve price as auctions continue to attract crowds.
With property prices on the rise and sales moving quickly, the trend of sales coming in well above reserve appears to have become a more common one.
According to Louis Christopher, founder of SQM Research, it is being driven by pent-up demand as well as instances of underquoting – for both legitimate and illegitimate reasons.
Losing at an auction can be frustrating for would-be homebuyers at the best of times, but being outbid by seven figures is in the realm of parody.