Canberra auctions: Nicholls house sells for $2.05m after passing in

A five-bedroom house in Nicholls sold for $2.05 million post-auction on Saturday, after it was passed in on a vendor bid of $1.9 million.

A crowd of 80 turned out for the auction of 114 Temperley Street, a sprawling family home on 1100 square metres of land, with an infinity pool overlooking a golf course.

But that wasn’t enough for any of the seven registered bidders to strike a deal on the auction floor on Saturday, with the property failing to sell under the hammer despite drawing interest from more than 200 groups throughout the four-week auction campaign.

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Bidding for the property kicked off at $1 million and increased in $100,000 increments up to $1.6 million, then dropped to $50,000 jumps, as four parties competed for the keys. 

After bidding halted at $1.7 million, auctioneer Scott Crossman, of One Agency Scott Crossman, made a vendor bid of $1.9 million — which received a few looks of surprise from onlookers — and the property passed in.

“Bidding for the house was a real struggle,” said selling agent Kostya Logvinov of Harcourts Belconnen.

“We weren’t getting the traction that we were hoping for or expected for a house of that calibre in Nicholls.”

While the property failed to sell on the auction floor, Mr Logvinov had secured a $2.05 million deal with the highest bidder within the hour.

The buyers were a family who relocated to the capital a few months ago and had been very specific about the type of property they wanted, Mr Logvinov said.

“It ticked all the boxes for them … it’s a house in one of the best suburbs in the Gungahlin region and one of Nicholls’ finest,” he said.

The seller, who also built the property, decided to part with his home in a bid to downsize.

While the bidding was slow on the day, Mr Logvinov said the four-week campaign was one of the busiest he had had ever seen.

Further south in Rivett, another downsizing couple sold their five-bedroom residence at 1 Darwinia Terrace for $1.2 million – $220,000 above the reserve.

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An offer of $900,000 kicked off proceedings and the bidding increased in $50,000 increments, before shortening to $25,000 increases, with two of the seven registered bidders throwing their hats in the ring.

The auction was “hard-fought and quick”, according to selling agent Josh Wilson, of Luton Properties Weston Creek and Molonglo Valley, who sold the property to a young couple.

“They’d been to a few of our auctions lately so it was good to see them get the keys of this house,” Mr Wilson said.

Mr Wilson said he had been seeing strong demand from first-home buyers and upgraders across the market, driven mostly by record-low interest rates. He added the Rivett home had drawn strong interest from young families.

“I specialise in the Weston Creek region and we’ve seen a huge growth in the demand for properties here and a number of people moving here because it is an area that has something for every price point,” he said.

According to the latest Domain House Price Report, Weston Creek’s median house price increased by 6.8 per cent to $780,000 in the 12 months to December 2020.

“In the last year, we’ve seen a huge jump in the median house price in this area and I don’t expect that to slow down,” Mr Wilson said.