Recent north-side ACT suburb and region records break again, with $2.26m sale

Only two and a half weeks. That’s how long a home in Weetangera held the suburb – and Belconnen region – record before the property at 157 Springvale Drive sold under the hammer on Saturday and set a new benchmark for Weetangera and the broader Belconnen region.

The six-bedroom home sold for $2.26 million before a crowd of more than 250 on the weekend.

“There was no room for people to park within 300 metres of the house; that’s how busy it was,” said selling agent Michael Braddon of Blackshaw Belconnen.

Mr Braddon said the strong turnout only fueled the bidders’ desires to walk away with the keys to the house.

“Of the eight registered bidders, four participated in the auction, and it came down to two families who really fought hard,” he said.

“When we first listed the property, the record at the time was $1.575 million. Based on that, similar sales in the area and the rate the market was going, we were expecting it to surpass $1.6 million — that was our initial expectation when we valued the home.

“And when the floor opened for bids, the opening bid was $1.6 million, which was a fantastic start.”

It took less than 10 offers to get to $2 million, and from there, two bidders carried the price to its eventual selling price of $2.26 million.

Internal Allhomes data shows the property had more than 18,000 views and an engagement number* of close to 420,000 during the course of the auction campaign.

Under the seller’s ownership, the property was fully renovated, which was the ultimate drawcard for the eventual buyers who were looking for a “move-in ready home”, Mr Braddon said.

Government records show the property was last purchased in 2017 for $1.12 million.

The previous suburb and region record was set in April by the property at 10 Gillespie Street when it sold for $2.145 million at auction.

On Saturday, the city recorded an auction clearance rate of 90 per cent, according to preliminary Domain data.

There were 75 scheduled auctions, and of the 64 reported results, 57 sold, one was withdrawn, and five passed in.

With more sellers opting to take their houses to auction, Mr Braddon said: “It pays off to invest in marketing”.

“If sellers want to attract more buyers and want to get their property exposed as much as possible, they have to market the home,” he said.

“It’s not enough to just take a home to auction and do the basics; you’ve got to cover all the bases, which is what we did when we were selling 157 Springvale Drive — it’s social and print media, ads, videos and everything in-between to reach as many people as possible, and it paid off on Saturday.”

*Engagement levels are calculated by the number of clicks on a property’s floor plan, photos, video, 3D tours and property history, and utilising the map functions such as clicking on the aerial view of the property and land details.