Canberra auctions kick off 2020 with $806,000 sale

A three-bedroom Lyneham house sold under the hammer on Saturday morning for $806,000 after a fierce bidding war between several registered bidders.

Nestled in the heart of Lyneham and hidden away from street view, the dual occupancy at 15B Glover Street attracted more than 50 onlookers and brought in 17 registered bidders.

The auction moved at a swift pace with the first bid starting at $600,000 and a counter bid of $610,000 coming shortly after.

The bidding continued in increments of $10,000 until the price reached $670,00, at which the bidding shortened to a $5,000 increase. 

A $7,000 reply followed, which saw LJ Hooker Dickson auctioneer Stephen Bunday make the first call until a counter bid of $685,000 was made.

Two bidders sparred for the house until it reached $745,000. Bunday then announced he would accept $1,000 rises, which encouraged four replies from bidders for $746,000 and a stand-down of the former bidder.

Momentum then picked up when a new party entered the race with a counter bid of $750,000. This was then followed by a $10,000 increase.

At this point, the new party and the starting bidders went to war with the auctioneer calling it in at $785,000 to the starting bidder, then $801,000 to the new party.

A $4,000 reply followed and then a $1,000 bid, bringing the price to $806,000 to the new party. With no more bids forthcoming, the new party walked away with the keys.

LJ Hooker Dickson listing agent Ryan Hedley described the auction’s atmosphere as “buzzing”, adding that the property sold for $56,000 above the reserve. 

According to Hedley, the success of the auction came off the back of a split campaign which started before Christmas and relaunched this year.

“With that, we get a fair bit of interest before that Christmas break where people go and talk with their family. When they talk to their family, the conversations turn from ‘This is a house I want to buy’ to ‘This is the house I’m going to buy’,” he said.

“With that extra emotional attachment carrying through those extra weeks, you can sometimes get a little bit of a higher price and we saw that play out here.”

Hedley noted that the vendor, who lived in the house for 13 years, planned to sell the property as part of her retirement plan and move to Newcastle.

The vendor also plans to donate parts of the sale to her sister, a farmer affected by the droughts experienced across the nation.

The winning bidders were a young family who had been looking for a house for the last two years and is excited to call the charming property home.