Canberra auctions: Torrens home passes in despite large crowd of onlookers

A home in Torrens passed in at auction on Saturday despite a large crowd watching on and strong interest during the campaign. 

The four-bedroom home at 99 Gouger Street, Torrens, attracted about 60 groups during its open homes, and garnered a lot of interest from numerous prospective buyers, selling agent Mario Sanfrancesco of Blackshaw Manuka said.

“Sixty groups over the three to four-week campaign is very reasonable, all things considered,” he said. 

One registered bidder attended the auction, but several other interested parties watching in the crowd were not in the position to sign a contract yet, Sanfrancesco added. 

“It’s interesting because [immediately following the auction] my agents [were] in discussions with two very interested buyers,” he said. 

“There are serious discussions going on, and there was also another potential buyer who hadn’t seen the home who requested a contract upon arrival today.

“From here, we will see how these negotiations play out over the weekend, and if we can’t achieve success, then it will likely come on the market with an asking price and will be sold that way.”

While Sanfrancesco would have preferred a successful sale at auction, he said it wasn’t surprising that the home was passed in on the day. 

“It would definitely have been the preferable outcome, but nothing is ever 100 per cent foolproof,” he said. 

“It wasn’t a surprise, but we are also happy knowing there was general interest in the home, particularly with family groups like those who watched on today.

“We were very aware that we were unlikely to have someone bidding today, given a lot of people’s personal circumstances at the moment.” 

Sanfrancesco said he was certain that the house would produce a quality sale during the following weeks, due to the standard of the home itself. 

“This house is almost new, as you can see from the bathrooms and the kitchen especially … the quality is exceptional,” he said. 

“That, in addition to where it sits, backing onto the reserve directly, meant we were always anticipating significant interest – which we got.

“In this situation, I guess, we just weren’t able to get the buyers assembled on auction day.” 

With five other auctions scheduled for Saturday and another for Sunday, Sanfrancesco said, realistically, he wasn’t expecting all to sell at auction. 

“Last week, we sold five of our seven homes, which works out close to 70 per cent, and that is very pleasing in the current environment,” he said. 

“Today, we have a total of five auctions, as well as one on Sunday, and we are expecting likely sales with more than half of those.

“Things playing out like this is what is expected in the current market, and we know we will continue to get successful and quality sales at the end of the process regardless.”

Last Saturday, 57 per cent of homes going to auction sold under the hammer, according to Allhomes data. 

This was 22 percentage points below the result from the same week in 2022, when 79 per cent of scheduled auctions produced successful sales.