Higgins home breaks suburb record with $980,000 sale at auction

A newly renovated four-bedroom home in Higgins has set a suburb record after it sold under the hammer on Saturday for $980,000, surpassing the previous benchmark by $158,000.

The residence at 36 MacNaughton Street ticked all the boxes for many potential buyers, including the 10 registered parties. 

“We had 340 groups through the auction campaign with many drawn to the house’s impressive outdoor entertaining area,” said selling agent Michael Braddon of Blackshaw Gungahlin.

“It definitely had that street appeal from the front and the further you walked through the home [you were left] even more amazed by its high quality finishings,” he said.

Bidding for the property kicked off at $750,000 and quickly made its way past the $800,000 mark thanks to seven bidders, Mr Braddon said.

“From here, five bidders placed $20,000 bids until it reached $900,000 and it just kept increasing,” he said.

While Mr Braddon had been confident the property would break the suburb record, he hadn’t anticipated it pushing past the $950,000 mark.

According to government records, Higgins’ previous highest sale price was for the house at 46 Davidson Street which sold for $822,000 in 2019.

“I was certain it would sell just beyond $900,000 but then there was fierce bidding from all the parties and the price kept escalating,” Mr Braddon said.

“To have something closer to the $1 million mark was a big surprise and an incredible result … it goes to show what people are prepared to pay for the right property.”

The eventual homeowner was a local family who had been looking for their dream home for a few years, Mr Braddon added.

Government records show the residence last sold in 2018 for $620,000.

Mr Braddon expects strong buyer demand to continue to push house prices up moving forward.

“For the month of February, we had 980 people look at all the properties I held an open for inspection for … clearly, there aren’t 980 homes for sale right now so it’s clear that that buyer appetite will remain for the foreseeable future,” he said.

“Also, we closed the month with this sale at $980,000 so it seemed like it was a magic number for February.”