Balwyn North home sells online for $2.619m in Melbourne's lockdown auction market
A three-bedroom home in Melbourne’s east, which saw 15 people register to bid online, sold under the virtual hammer at the weekend for $2.619 million, as the city endured its second weekend of its latest COVID-19 lockdown.
The home at 33 Bolinda Road, Balwyn North, which had only two owners since being built in the 1960s, went to an online auction after a nervous week of deciding whether to sell prior, Fletchers Balwyn North partner Nick Fletcher said.
“We monitored what was going on over the past week or so and worked with the vendor on whether to accept offers prior or hold it back a week [in hopes the lockdown was over],” Mr Fletcher said. “We had great competition on the day, so it worked out really well for the vendors.”
It sold after being called on the market at $2.025 million, Mr Fletcher said.
The couple who owned the home were selling to downsize, and watched online with the help of family as the home sold to another family now planning to live there.
The property was one of several that sold for more than $1 million at the weekend, despite all Melbourne auctions being moved online as the Victorian government locked the city down to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
Melbourne buyers were still keen to snap up a property, despite being unable to attend an on-street auction or inspect a property in-person, under lockdown rules.
While properties sold well at the weekend, the big test for the market will come next weekend. That is when campaigns that started just before the lockdown and have not had buyers see the property face to face will come up for auction.
At the weekend, Melbourne’s preliminary clearance rate sat at 62.5 per cent after 1369 auctions were scheduled and 803 results were reported. There were 281 properties withdrawn from auction, which were counted as not being sold as part of the clearance rate.
It followed strong results recorded in May in Melbourne, Domain senior research analyst Nicola Powell said.
“Melbourne’s auction clearance rate improved in May to 72.2 per cent, 2.3 percentage points higher than April, but was lower than the four-year high reached in March,” Dr Powell said.
“This is the strongest May clearance rate in four years, and comes despite the final weekend in May being impacted by the snap lockdown to contain COVID outbreaks.”
The title of top sale was taken by a five-bedroom home at 44 Merton Street, Albert Park, that sold for $9.9 million on Friday – a massive $1.2 million above the reserve under the virtual hammer.
Greg Hocking Holdsworth director and auctioneer Simon Gowling said competition was fierce for the tightly held home. It had only had three owners since being built in 1944. The buyers, a local family, became the fourth owners of the home after making the knockout bid of almost $10 million.
“All the buyers were locals, they all lived within a 5 kilometre radius of it and had been looking at it for a long time because it’s such a rare piece of real estate,” Mr Gowling said.
The vendors, who owned the property for 17 years, had bought the home after slipping a note under the front door asking if the home was for sale and offering to buy it, Mr Gowling said.
They have bought another home in the same suburb he said.
Mr Gowling said he was shattered Melbourne had gone into lockdown before an on-street auction could be held, but said the outcome for the vendors was amazing.
It was the first auction Mr Gowling had done via Zoom, he said.
A three-bedroom home in Melbourne’s inner north-east sold for $1.771 million after being called on the market at $1.65 million.
The double-fronted Victorian home at 30 Raphael Street, Abbotsford, sold to a young, local family who wanted to stay in the suburb.
Jellis Craig Richmond partner Jodie McCarthy said the three bidders on the home had seen through the house before lockdown.
“One of the possible bidders who hadn’t seen it was going to bid but didn’t in the end,” Ms McCarthy said.
The vendors of the home, who had moved to Queensland last year, had updated the property, including adding wardrobes and a vertical garden.
In the city’s north-west, a four-bedroom home sold for well above the $1.7 million reserve, when a winning online bid of $1.91 million was made.
The home at 15 Cuthbert Street, Niddrie, was snapped up by downsizers looking for a property in the area.
They were one of three registered bidders competing. One of the underbidders had not seen through the property, Barry Plant selling agent and auctioneer Tony Catena said.
The home had been rebuilt seven years ago, after the original home was torn down, he said.
“That went absolutely ballistic,” Mr Catena said.
He also sold a three-bedroom home nearby at 10 Roberts Road, Airport West, that went for $1.242 million.
The mainly original home was on a large block of land with some developers competing for it. However, a young family wanting to live close to schools were the winning bidders.
“What’s going to be interesting is the next week — the auctions scheduled for the 19th of June, they’ve had no campaign, so unless they’re land value sales they’re going to struggle,” Mr Catena said.
Another home that had only two owners since being built in the 1950s, sold at an online auction on Saturday.
The three-bedroom home at 52 Maple Street, Blackburn, had 10 bidders register for the online auction, with four of them actively bidding, seeing the home sell for $1.545 million.
Jellis Craig Whitehorse director and auctioneer Stephen Le Get said young buyers looking to upgrade bought the home, competing against some developers for the property.
Like many agents, Mr Le Get said that earlier in the day they were unsure there would be enough interest in the property to go ahead with an online sale.
“Buyers are still willing to adapt if they’ve got genuine interest,” Mr Le Get said. “But, it’s still pretty remarkable, it just shows the underlying strength of the market at the moment.”
He is one of many hoping the property market will be be able to get back to COVID-normal soon, to at least be able to show buyers through a property one on one to ensure buyer interest is captured for upcoming auctions.
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