The hot Melbourne market has helped one of Victoria's largest real estate agencies, hockingstuart, see its best year in three decades and grab 14 percent of the Victorian auction market. The network sold more than 6,300 properties worth $4.6 billion in the 2014-2015 financial year, exceeding its previous record in 2009-2010. Listings have also increased by 44 percent compared to the same time last year.

Managing Director and CEO Nigel O’Neil said three years ago, hockingstuart sold one in nine properties in Victoria and now they sell one in every seven. "That's the pleasing result for me, growing market share, because sales numbers go up and down with the marketplace," said O'Neil. "Over the last three years we've only put on a handful of offices, it's been mainly through organic growth of our existing offices."

O'Neil said their growth strategy involves better agents, developing deeper relationships with vendors and a better moving strategy which centers around a removalist business, a utility connections business and a finance business. "They all help consumers be connected to our brand," he said. hockingstuart has also launched its 10 week program for auctioneers. "We're trying to create the best auctioneers in the marketplace so that when vendors see an auction, they say 'I want that person doing my auction.' That's what we're aiming for."

O'Neil said the top three performing hockingstuart offices are in Bentleigh, Balwyn and Ballarat. "Regional performance is always more steady, whereas your Balwyn and Bentleigh offices have been flying - their numbers are up two thirds on what they were last year. The Ballarat office is steady increase because their market isn't as aggressive as some of the inner markets," said O'Neil.

About a third of those sales were apartments, and hockingstuart also auctions about a third of all their properties, said O'Neil. They are seeing a lot of off-market sales and a lot of higher end sales in Victoria. "We're about 50 percent up on our listings into August," said O'Neil. "There's obviously plenty of vendors looking to upgrade, so I think it's going to be a strong spring. Our auction clearance rates have been above 80 percent for the last four months."