Yarralumla home breaks Canberra auction record with $3.95 million sale

Canberra’s residential auction record was smashed by more than half a million dollars when a home in Yarralumla sold under the hammer for $3.95 million on Wednesday.

The sale of the palatial waterfront property at 16 Brown Street was also the strongest sale of the year so far and broke the suburb record for Yarralumla. 

The previous auction record for a single residential home was set in 2014 when a home at Mugga Way in Red Hill sold for $3.4 million. 

Peter Blackshaw Manuka agents Andrew Chamberlain and Alec Brown teamed up with LJ Hooker Manuka principal Stephen Thompson for the historic sale. 

Mr Chamberlain originally sold the block of land to the vendors 20 years ago. He said they had looked long and hard to find the perfect parcel before purchasing the Yarralumla block off market. 

“It was their family home for many years,” Mr Chamberlain said. 

“No expense was spared on the construction of the home and the materials were sourced from far and wide.”

Mr Thompson said the home was “iconic” and well-known in the local area. There are 12 homes on Brown Street and just four boast unobstructed views of Lake Burley Griffin.

“We were so inundated with interest,” Mr Thompson said. 

“We tried one open home but it was too busy so we had to cancel the rest and have it as appointment only,” Mr Thompson said. 

Mr Brown was the auctioneer on Wednesday and five of the 11 registered parties placed a bid.

Mr Chamberlain said the bidding quickly sailed past the undisclosed reserve price. He said he expected a strong result for the sale, but it exceeded his expectations. 

The sale price topped the Yarralumla suburb record by $750,000. The former record of $3.2 million was set last year when a contemporary five-bedroom home on Hampton Court sold for after almost two years on the market. 

The sale also places Yarralumla’s suburb record ahead of Forrest’s for the first time. Forrest’s record was set in 2009 when 30 Empire Circuit sold for $3.9 million.

Only Red Hill, Deakin and O’Malley have broken the $4 million mark in Canberra. 

Red Hill has had nine sales above $4 million, all sold by private treaty. The top four of these were in Mugga Way.

The ACT record was set in 2010 when 27 Mugga Way, Red Hill, was sold for $7.3 million. 

Mr Thompson said the high level of interest at 16 Brown Street demonstrated that there were a lot of Canberra buyers seeking high-end homes.

“The depth of top-end buyers is phenomenal,” Mr Thompson said. 

“They’re looking for quality and they’re happy to pay for it.”

Mr Thompson said the buyers had also been looking for a family home in Canberra for a long time. He said they first inspected the home a week ago and fell in love with the property.

This article first appeared in Domain.com.