Canberra auctions: Suburb record among Super-Saturday sales

With more than 100 properties going under the hammer this weekend, it was a very “Super Saturday” for the Canberra auction market. 

Among the sales was a new suburb record for Ainslie with the sale of 12 Baker Gardens. The four-bedroom home was the first sale above $2 million in the suburb. 

Approximately 100 people were at the auction, with three registered bidders among the crowd. It was passed-in, but a sale negotiated shortly after. 

The home was constructed in late-2015 and was built to passive-house design principles. 

Luton Properties Canberra City listing agent James Carter said the result “was great for passive homes”. “Canberra seems to be taking more responsibility for built form,” he said. 

A knockdown-rebuild in Kambah, also built in 2015 to passive-design principles, sold under the hammer on Saturday morning. 

The four-bedroom home at 40 Stieglitz Circuit sold for $772,000. 

McIntyre Property listing agent Betty Wark said the vendor initially wanted to renovate the Kambah property but decided to rebuild, resulting in the newly constructed home. 

Ms Wark described the home as being ideal for a family.The four registered bidders at the auction mostly consisted of families. 

Bidding was slow to get underway but kicked off at $625,000, this was immediately countered by a bid for $650,000.

Bids progressed in increments of $5000 and $10,000 until the price reached $760,000, when an increment of $1000 was accepted.  

There were an additional four bids before the price reached $772,000 and one of the two remaining parties dropped out. 

At this point, auctioneer Colin McIntyre and Ms Wark spoke with the vendor, and upon their return Mr McIntyre declared the home was “for outright sale”. 

• Related: Buyer snaps up conveniently located Ainslie home for $1.020 million 
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The buyers – a young family – had been to almost every open-home, and said the auction was “nerve-wracking”. 

“The newness of the home was attractive to us, we don’t have to do anything as everything has already been done,” they said. 

They will be relocating from Monash. 

Kambah’s median house price is $540,000 and last month the south-side suburb recorded a clearance rate of 65 per cent. 

Domain data released on Saturday found the proportion of houses sold via auction in Canberra is 32.4 per cent – the highest in the nation, on par with Melbourne. 

This did not come as a surprise to Ms Wark who said the Canberra market is “better than stable”. 

“The market is really good at the moment, I’ve been in the industry for almost 20 years and we normally follow the Sydney market closely but this is the first time I have seen Canberra defy that,” she said. 

At this stage, there are only 36 scheduled auctions in Canberra next Saturday, as the market quietens for the Labour Day long weekend.