Canberra auctions: Holidays not deterring buyers as Kambah home sells for $855,000

As Canberra approaches the second week of the school holidays, a home in Kambah sold for $855,000 on Saturday in an auction that was just as packed as any other weekend. 

The three-bedroom home at 29 Mackay Crescent drew five registered bidders on the day, and “a good sized crowd”, according to co-selling agent Rick Dickson of Blackshaw Tuggeranong. 

“There was a crowd of around 50 people at the auction, and we were hoping for around five or six registered bidders … there was no real impact of the holidays at all,” he said. 

The auction kicked off when one of the five registered bidders placed a bid of $750,000. 

Three bidders then pushed up the price for the home until it reached $835,000, and the auction stalled. 

The participant with the highest bid then increased their offer to $855,000 after negotiations, and the house sold. 

Dickson said he had been expecting a successful auction, given the large number of groups who had gone through during open homes, and their high levels of interest.

“We were really quite busy during the open homes; we probably had about 60 groups through in total over the four weeks,” he said. 

“That, as far as I am concerned, is a great turnout, so we knew we were going to have a good auction.”

The home was being rented out by the sellers, who currently live on the coast, but they decided to sell after the most recent tenant moved out, Dickson added. 

“The people that ended up purchasing the property were a young couple who were buying their first home together,” he said. 

“It’s a first home in an area they really loved … and they intend on fixing up the house a bit too.”

Dickson said homes like this, which appeal to first-home buyers, were still regularly successful at auction as the market begins to transition towards normalcy after the past year of record sales. 

“I think the good properties like this one – the good-sized homes in good areas with prices that are relatively affordable – are still doing really well at the moment and people are still really interested in them,” he said. 

“I also think that the bubble has burst a little bit in regards to the market of last year, but in the 22 years I have been in real estate, I can say that what is happening now is pretty normal.

“The market is coming back to a normal point … it’s not going crazy anymore. People are still seeing good prices out there and going after good homes.”

According to the latest Domain Auction Report, Canberra’s average clearance rate was 55.2 per cent in August, down by 23.1 percentage points year-on-year from 83.3 per cent.

Last Saturday, Allhomes data revealed that 54 per cent of the homes that went to auction sold under the hammer.