Canberra auctions: Yarralumla home passes in at $2.5 million as crowd watches on

A home in Yarralumla has passed in after failing to sell during auction proceedings on Saturday, but the agent said there was a likelihood the home would still sell before the weekend was over. 

The four-bedroom home at 103 Schlich Street attracted two registered bidders, but the majority of the auction consisted of back and forth negotiations between a single bidder and the sellers. 

“The number of bidders was slightly under where we were expecting … two other potential bidders pulled out today because they were having issues getting their finances together,” said selling agent Bree Prince of HIVE Property. “Finances are definitely a problem for buyers at the moment.” 

The auction started when one of the two active bidders placed an opening bid of $2 million. 

The second party then placed a bid of $2.1 million, which was quickly countered by an offer of $2.15 million by the first bidder. 

The second party then put $2.2 million on the table, and the first bidder backed out of the proceedings. 

The remaining bidder started negotiations with the sellers through Prince. Auctioneer Steve Langford, also of HIVE Property, then announced they had increased their bid to $2.35 million. 

Following further negotiations between seller, agent and bidder, the bid was increased to $2.45 million, then $2.5 million and, with no further bids, the home was passed in. 

Despite not achieving a sale within the auction itself, Prince said she was confident a sale would be achieved soon. 

“I am hoping to get it done today, but it depends on a number of factors,” she said. 

“The process from here is we will be working very closely with the top bidder … and we will negotiate with them throughout the day to see if we can get a deal together.

“The owners of this home are going to an auction shortly after this one, so the end result will largely depend on that, in terms of where we will likely be going from here … we are definitely close.”

The vendors had decided to sell the home to move closer to family who lived in a different part of Canberra, Prince added. 

The auction at 103 Schlich Street, Yarralumla, was one of 101 that were being held in Canberra this weekend, making it the second Super Saturday of the year so far. 

Last week, just 53 per cent of homes sold during scheduled auctions, according to internal Domain data. 

The larger number of homes on offer, both at auction and via private treaty, were affecting the market at the moment, Prince added. 

“There are definitely more options for buyers to choose from at the moment, so if they don’t necessarily agree with the price of a property and it doesn’t 100 per cent suit their requirements, they are waiting for the dream place instead,” she said. 

“There seems to be no urgency in the market at all, so the increase of properties has caused things to be slower. That is largely to do with the increased stock levels all across the board.”