Auction watch: First home buyers vie for Queanbeyan properties

Queanbeyan first home buyers faced added competition from Canberrans on the first day of the financial year as the NSW government’s new stamp duty concessions began driving demand.

Ian McNamee & Partners Queanbeyan director Darren Bennett said the changes have spurred inquiry for established, entry-level properties in Queanbeyan and other towns on the ACT’s fringe.

First home buyers are now exempt from paying stamp duty on new and existing properties up to $650,000 in NSW.

Number 33 Woodger Parade in Karabar was among the properties auctioned on Saturday.

Ian McNamee & Partners Queanbeyan agent Mark Higgs said more than 70 groups inspected the three-bedroom, en suite home.

Despite the frosty start to the morning, about 50 people gathered to watch five registered bidders vie for the property.

Mr Bennett said the bidders were a mix of Canberrans and Queanbeyan locals, however it was a local first home buyer who secured the property for $491,000.

The agency sold another property at 10 Early Street in Queanbeyan to a first home buyer on Saturday afternoon.

The three-bedroom house sold under the hammer for $475,000 via agent Steve Taskovski. There were six registered bidders.

• Related: Auction Watch: Speedy sale in Pearce
• Related: New concessions lure Canberra buyers
• Related: Canberra grows up around Griffith house

Mr Bennett said Queanbeyan stock levels were trailing demand and houses between $450,000 and $650,000 were being snapped up quickly.

“ACT buyers are now starting to look harder,” Mr Bennett said.

“[The stamp duty concession changes] have had a big effect in a short amount of time.”

Back in the ACT, one of the biggest sales of the day was a Griffith property, on the market for the first time in 80 years.

Number 15 Stuart Street, Griffith, sold for $1,260,000. Photo: Supplied

Number 15 Stuart Street was built in 1939 and occupies a 1059-square-metre block close to Manuka Village.

It sold under the hammer for $1.26 million via Peter Blackshaw Manuka agents Mario Sanfrancesco and David Stokes.

The Griffith sale contributed to an ACT clearance rate of 75 per cent, according to Domain Group data – up from last week’s 70 per cent.

See a full list of Canberra auction results here.