‘Bomb bid’ blows away the competition in Morningside auction

A recently-built house in Morningside, one street over from popular Balmoral, was the centre of stiff competition from serious buyers on Saturday morning.

The spacious home at 43 Tandoor Street sold last year for $1.26 million, and Belle Property‘s principal Tony O’Doherty said he was told during the marketing campaign the house might have lost value as it aged.

He needn’t have worried, though. The first and winning bidder came out swinging, coming close to last year’s sale price on the very first bid.

“We had a good old fashioned bomb bid. And that really worked for him and he opened it good and high and it sold for $30,000 more,” Mr O’Doherty said.

The auction kicked off at $1.25 million, and three bids later finished at $1.28 million.

“There were four bids and the guy who purchased it made three of the four bids,” Tony O’Doherty said. “We had five registered bidders and I think two of them would have bid if it didn’t start so high.”

Mr O’Doherty said the house had good interest because of its family-friendly floor plan, with all the bedrooms on one level. A home cinema takes pride of place on the top level, and a master suite fills the other end of the top floor. These features were a big draw for buyers, but the location was another appealing factor.

“It’s a house that’s so close to 4071, the next street over is Balmoral,” Mr O’Doherty said.  “People love that you’re in Morningside, paying Morningside prices 25 metres from Balmoral. You’d pay $300,000 more in Balmoral.”

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Later in Paddington, a new build sold at auction for $1,925,000. Space Property‘s Judi O’Dea said buyers were tripping over each other to own the home.

“We started at $1.6 million, there were two ladies bidding,” she said. “The people who purchased it flew in from Singapore. They have two teenage children.

“They fell in love with the house and the suburb of Paddington. The house just worked so beautifully for them.”

Ms O’Dea said the home was well built, making the most of a large 855-square-metre block of land.

“It was the spaces in this house. Brilliant separation of living and city views on two of the top levels,” she said. “It’s hard to find properties on that size block which was wide, making the spaces in the house generous.”

Back on the south side of the river in Tarragindi, a sprawling family home passed in after a brief auction. Place Estate Agents‘ auctioneer Peter Burgin said it was tough to put a price on the house.

“It feels like there’s a couple of different markets for this address,” he said. “People who want to move in a do a little bit of renovation, people who want to make some wholesale changes and developers who just want to knock it down and split it in two and it’s a matter of trying to work out where the market sits and what part of the market favours the sellers.”

Mr Burgin said the Tarragindi market was maturing and had not yet peaked. He said a large double block in a more mature suburb would have been an easier sell.

“If this was Bulimba people wouldn’t even think about it,” he said.  The four-bedroom home passed in at $1,249,000.