Private bidding wars drive two ACT suburb records over $1m 

Two weeks. That was how long two properties in Waramanga and Moncrieff were on the market before they were sold and set suburb records.

The residential sales benchmark in Waramanga now sits at $1.422 million and $1.25 million in Moncrieff.

The five-bedroom home at 3 Bidia Place, Waramanga, sold before auction and beat the previous benchmark by $192,000.

The property was scheduled to go under the hammer on May 8 but an eager house hunter put in a pre-auction offer on Tuesday morning and for the next seven hours, selling agents Rick and Tina Meir, of Hayman Partners, were reaching out to other interested parties.

“The first offer came from an interstate buyer at $1.2 million, which we thought was outstanding but from there, three other parties had put in their offers and the highest was $1.422 million,” Mr Meir said.

He was surprised at how much the property sold for, considering the price guide set for the home was between $1 million and $1.1 million.

“For this type of home, it’s always difficult to grasp the value of it and, of course, it’s then in the buyer’s court whether they are willing to pay for it and in this case, they were,” he said.

“It’s a unique 1970s architecturally designed home which has been through modest renovations over the sellers’ ownership and that’s what appealed to the eventual buyers.”

Government records show Waramanga’s previous record was set by the house at 38 Yiman Street which sold for $1.225 million in 2018.

Elsewhere, a five-bedroom home at 17 Amicus Street, Moncrieff, sold via private negotiations on Friday and beat the previous record by $30,000.

Selling agent Tammy Bush, of Independent Inner North & City, said the property was only accepting offers more than $1.175 million and to her surprise, she received 12 offers from interested parties after only three open-for-inspections.

“All the offers were really strong and were more than $1.2 million, of which six were already above the previous suburb record. It came down to two parties who were both upping each offer until it reached $1.25 million,” she said.

“This was a builder’s own home and as you’d expect, everything was done to the highest of standards. It was a beautiful house that basically sold itself.”

Ms Bush was confident the home would sell at a premium price but didn’t know it set a record until after it sold.

According to government records, Moncrieff’s previous record was set in 2020 by 31 Jorgensen Street which sold for $1.22 million.

The latest record sales follow a string of record transactions across the capital. In the latest Domain House Price Report for the March quarter 2021, Canberra’s median house price reached a record high of $927,577.

This was a quarterly increase of 9.7 per cent — the strongest quarterly growth of all capital cities — and the fastest quarterly growth to the highest median price since Domain records began in 1993. 

Should this rate of growth continue, Canberra’s median could reach $1 million by June.

“The market is absolutely crazy right now. Every time you think it’ll slow down, prices increase,” Ms Bush said.

“This may well be the peak of Canberra’s house prices but who knows. We’ll have to wait and see.”