Flynn home sells for the first time in almost 50 years for $665,000

A three-bedroom home in Flynn sold for the first time in almost 50 years on Saturday morning after a fast-paced and hard-fought bidding war pushed the selling price to $665,000.

Listing agent Kostya Logvinov of Harcourts Belconnen said the campaign for 12 Meiklejohn Place was very busy, with more than 130 groups through the house over the four-week period.

“It’s in a good street, in a good suburb and at a great price point,” Mr Logvinov said.

A crowd of more than 30 people gathered in the backyard of the property for the auction which brought in nine registered bidders.

The auction kicked off at $585,000 and was quickly countered with a $5000 raise.

The bidding continued in varying increments of $1000 up to $7000 until the price reached $650,000 thanks to six bidders who tried their luck.

From there, it whittled down to a two-horse race when a late bidder made a $653,000 offer. Odd raises of $1000 and $2000 were made until the price reached $665,000 in favour of the late entrant.

With no further offers for the home, independent auctioneer Shane Zwajgenberg dropped the hammer.

Mr Logvinov described the auction as “wild”, noting that “some people couldn’t even put in a bid because everything was moving so fast”.

“It was one of the quickest auctions I’ve seen,” he said.

“A home is only worth what people are prepared to pay and our vendors were elated with how much their home sold for. It really did exceed their expectations.”

The vendors were David and Pauline Wright, who had lived in the property since 1974.

Under their ownership, the kitchen, bathroom and living areas were renovated, Mr Logvinov said.

“They really took care of the house and maintained every nook and cranny.”

But it’s a bittersweet sale for Mr Wright, who said he will miss the neighbourhood the most.

“We were the first owners of the house and over the last 46 years, we’ve seen the suburb grow and mature,” he said.

“We spent a lot of time here, raised our two kids here and we’ve got some very long-standing neighbours that we’re sadly going to have to leave.”

Mr Wright was pleased with the outcome of the sale, given the pandemic.

“It is quite difficult to predict how well a home will sell but we were pleased with the performance of the auction,” he said.

Mr Logvinov said the new buyers were first-home buyers looking to get a foot in the property door.

“With first-home buyers not needing to pay stamp duty on established homes, our new buyers wanted to take advantage of that and get out of the rental cycle,” he said.

Mr Wright is convinced that the new vendors will appreciate the place as much as he has over the years.

The sale comes days after the Domain House Price Report for the June quarter was released and showed Canberra’s house prices bucking the downward trend seen in other capital cities.

According to the report, Canberra’s median house price increased by 4.1 per cent in the last quarter to a median of $819,090. 

“I think there’s a lot of confidence about the market at the moment and although Melbourne and Sydney house prices have gone down in the previous quarter, Canberra house prices have continued to go from strength to strength,” Mr Logvinov said.

“We have a lot of buyers looking for homes under the $750,000 price point so it’s just electric at the moment.”