Brisbane property: Wilston suburb record smashed

It’s almost impossible to describe the scale of 39 Ray Street, Wilston.

The seven-bedroom home (which has as many bathrooms) sprawls over most of the oversized 1657-square metre block, but still has space to spare for a pool, pool house with a shower and bathroom, and a tennis court. All the rooms and a huge deck spread over four levels.

The auction of the enormous house naturally attracted an immense amount of interest.

But despite a crowd of dozens, only two buyers went at it, through agents on the phone.

“We’ve had inquiries from UAE and Asia,” Queensland Sotheby’s International realty agent Douglas Tonkin said. “We’ve had some from London too.”

Bidding kicked off at $3.05 million, and was very slow to begin with. After just five bids, the auction paused at $3.3 million for a lengthy negotiation. Almost half an hour later, the house was placed on the market with a bid of $3.8 million.

The buyer’s agents picked up the pace then and haggled in thousands of dollars.

Nearly 20 bids later, the house sold to an international buyer on the phone for $3,851,000, comfortably breaking the suburb record of $3.2 million.

• Related: Blink-and-you-miss it Canberra auction
• Related: Melbourne first-home buyer’s two year search 
• Related: Canberra childcare centre sells for $1.8m

Mr Tonkin and boss Stephen Weber could barely contain their excitement.

“Representing a house like this is fantastic,” Mr Weber. “As the new kids on the block, we’re setting a good precedent.”

Mr Weber said it could often be difficult sell prestige properties in Brisbane, but Sotheby’s access to international buyers sets his agency apart from the pack.

“It’s our point of difference, absolutely,” he said. “No one can compete with us with prestige property on any scale.”

The grandson of the renovated Queenslander’s first owner, John Inglis, was present to see the property sold. He said he wanted to be there to see the home move onto the next chapter.

“From family accounts, it was their pride and joy,” Mr Inglis said.

Apart from the facade, the home no longer resembled the original build much, but Mr Inglis said that was part of time marching forward.

“People can often be somewhat sad when they see things from the past disappear, but as human beings we need to embrace change, especially when it can add a positive benefit to someone’s life,” he said.

Earlier in the day in Auchenflower, a smaller four-bedroom home sold to a young family who had just moved over from London.

The house had pride of place in Jones Street, just off Milton Road. The home had been updated in places and featured a tidy exterior, but needed some work on the insides, Place West‘s Andrew Degn said.

Bidding started at $780,000 at Mr Degn’s suggestion and closed at $890,000 to Andrew and Melanie Clark. One of the couple’s two daughters had insisted in placing the winning bid.

“She just snuck that one in,” Mr Clark said. “A little bit more than we’d hoped, but she just loves to get involved.”

The coupled planned to renovate what had just become their first family home in Australia.