It is a month before Christmas and while most people are in holiday mode, the property market is in full swing.

An unliveable Box Hill property soared $1 million over reserve at auction on Saturday, and a villa unit in Canterbury fetched $1.8 million.

It took just two determined bidders — both developers looking for sites to build apartments — to ramp up the price from $2 million to $4.5 million for a run-down house at 23 Irving Avenue in Box Hill.

The corner block property, on 646 square metres, is in a residential growth zone with no height limit, though subject to council approval.

The owners bought the home about 23 years ago for just $133,000, according to Domain Group data.

Helena Chow, of Woodards Camberwell, described the bidding as “competitive” with the buyer sealing the deal after a $250,000 knock-out bid.

“[The house] is really shabby, it’s not habitable at all,” Ms Chow said. She attributed the huge result to the property’s position, overlooking Box Hill Gardens, and development potential.

While the developer’s intentions are still unknown, a seven-storey apartment block is under construction at 19 Irving Avenue.

There were also big results closer to the city, including a single-level villa unit at 1/29 Logan Street in Canterbury.

The property, just one of two, sold for $1.8 million against a $1.47 million reserve after another bullish bidder made a knock out bid of $230,000.

A circa-1910 period house at 95 Broadway, Camberwell also soared more than $700,000 over reserve.

Three bidders battled for the keys after Jellis Craig auctioneer Richard Earle was forced to kick the auction off with a $2.8 million vendor bid.

The four-bedroom house was announced on the market at $3.3 million and sold for $4,020,000 under the hammer to a couple.

Further from the city, Melbourne’s outer-eastern suburbs have made a come back, with higher clearance rates after prices growth stalled and lagged behind other parts of the city.

​Over the years, home buyers priced out of the inner east spilled into outer suburbs, and propelled clearance rates to near 89 per cent in mid-2015, followed by a drop.

Monthly clearance rates in the outer east fell to a low of 63 per cent in December, and dipped into the 60s again mid-year. Clearances had since has been climbing steadily to a year-high of 81.2 per cent in October.

Property owners in areas such as Mount Waverley, Mitcham and Blackburn enjoyed significant prices growth, but there was always a limit to buyers’ pockets.

“Price growth was so strong during that 2013 to 2015 period that affordability barriers were raised, and that created a market pause,” Domain Group chief economist Andrew Wilson said.

Dr Wilson said lower interest rates had increased buyers’ capacity to pay more, bringing the outer-eastern market back into the “top bracket in terms of regional performance”.

Suburbs such as Croydon, Kilsyth, Ringwood and Bayswater were now attracting buyers and higher prices as buyers venture further out in search of value, he added.

On Saturday, the Group reported a clearance rate of 78 per cent from 1068 reported auctions across the city as an influx of listings start to weigh on the market.

About 1300 auctions unfolded across the city on the biggest spring auction day of the year.

Dr Wilson said: “There is no slow down for the robust Melbourne home auction market with yet another strong clearance rate despite a surge in listings for the peak spring super Saturday.”