Albert Park mansion sells for $9m+ at auction, $1m more than reserve

A huge Albert Park home sold under the hammer for $9.01 million, with a crowd of more than 100 gathering for the Saturday auction.

The five-bedroom house at 92 Page Street featured a tower with a lookout, luxurious master bedroom and separate garage with another living space above it.

It also sat on 600 square metres of land, a particularly large block for tightly held Albert Park.

SOLD - $9,010,000

92 Page Street, Albert Park VIC 3206

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Greg Hocking Holdsworth’s Warwick Gardiner had the sale, and said he was nervous going into the auction because several buyers had told him they would hold off buying due to the coronavirus’ economic impact.

“I mean we’re in uncertain times so you never really know,” he said. “I also think they can throw the odd red herring out at this particular [price] level.

“Some of them had said to me that they weren’t going to bid and they did and I think that’s probably them playing their cards close to their chest.”

Bidding started slowly at $7 million, which was the bottom of the quoted price range. After a while it surpassed the top of the range, $7.5 million.

Not long after it surpassed the reserve of $8 million, selling for $1.01 million more than the vendor was asking. Page Street erupted in applause as the hammer fell.

The buyer was an Albert Park local, Mr Gardiner said, upgrading from a smaller property.

Despite the huge share market falls and economic uncertainty brought on by the coronavirus outbreak, Mr Gardiner said buyers were still keen to put their hands up at auction despite appearing to be apprehensive.

“We didn’t think it would go this well given the current environment but we ended up having five bidders,” he said. “With homes like this people are thinking long-term and they’re thinking that this is going to be their house for another 30 years and there’s always going to be bumps along the way, no matter what, in any economy.

“People are being pragmatic about it.”