Crestwood home snapped up for $625,000 in five minutes

Five minutes. That was all it took for a three-bedroom property in Crestwood, NSW to be snapped up on Saturday morning after a swift and hard-fought bidding war between two parties pushed the price to $625,000.

As rain poured over Canberra and its surrounding region, five registered bidders and a single spectator gathered inside 129 Munro Road.

Selling agent Brett Hayman of Hayman Partners said while the weather dampened auction conditions, “it didn’t dampen bidders’ desire to make an offer”.

Bidding for the house near Queanbeyan kicked off at $590,000 which was immediately countered by a $5000 raise.

Bidding continued between the two parties, with the price increasing in $5000 increments until it reached $615,000. From here, the stride shortened to $3000 and $1000 bids, with one $500 increase.

The house was on the market at $625,000 and, with no further offers, the hammer fell to the opening bidders.

“It was a fairly heated bidding war. It started with a strong bid and rose very quickly in small increments,” Mr Hayman said.

He described the auction campaign as “fantastic”, noting that close to 70 groups came through the property, particularly a lot of first-home buyers.

According to government records, the house last sold in 2012 for $420,000.

“Today’s auction results show that it’s a buoyant auction market for all types of buyers,” Mr Hayman said.

“Whether it’s an entry-level-priced home or a million-dollar home, houses are just selling everywhere and that is reflected in Canberra’s strong auction clearance rate in recent weeks.”

Elsewhere within the ACT border, a two-bedroom townhouse in Cook sold at auction for $540,000.

According to government records, the property at 2/59 Dugdale Street was last purchased in June for $380,000.

“The seller buys and flips homes so that’s what he did with this one,” said selling agent Amy Wilson of Belle Property Kingston.

The townhouse features light-filled living and dining areas, timber floors throughout and a kitchen with stone benchtops, Bosch appliances and teal-coloured herringbone backsplash tiles.

Ms Wilson said the bidding kicked off at $480,000 and slowly made its way past the $500,000 mark thanks to two of the three registered bidders. A vendor bid of $530,000 was placed before the eventual buyer upped the price to $540,000 and the hammer fell.

Over the course of the three-week auction campaign, close to 90 groups inspected the property, Ms Wilson added.

“We had a townhouse that sold for more than $600,000 recently which garnered a lot of interest so we wanted to take advantage of that,” Ms Wilson said.

“People are watching what’s happening in the market. They are keeping track of how fast quality properties are selling so they want in before they miss out.”