Yarralumla home sells for $1.32m at online auction

A four-bedroom home in Yarralumla has sold under the hammer after a bidding war pushed the price to $1.32 million.

The sale was conducted online via AuctionNow on Saturday, despite restrictions easing to allow bidders to compete for a property in person.

The residence at 91 Schlich Street sold in 19 bids with five registered bidders and 42 online viewers, according to listing agent Sophie Luton of Luton Properties.

“Imagine having those people at an on-site auction. The restrictions are only partially lifted and having only 20 people at an auction isn’t enough,” Ms Luton said.

“What if you already have 20 people on-site and one person registers to bid at the last minute? I don’t want to put a cap on how many bidders can bid at my auction.”

An opening offer of $1.15 million kicked off the proceedings, which was quickly countered by a $1.2 million offer. A third bidder then entered the race with a $10,000 increase.

Bidding continued in increments of $10,000 and $5000 between two parties until the price reached $1.285 million. From here, auctioneer Richard Luton of Luton Properties accepted $1000 bids.

The third bidder then placed a $1.3 million bid before upping their own offer by $15,000 and then again by $5000. With no forthcoming bids, the virtual hammer fell at $1.32 million.

In the ACT, on-site auctions and open for inspections are allowed to have up to 20 people so long as they do not exceed the one person per four square metres rule. The territory is currently in stage 2.1 of the ACT government’s COVID-19 Easing of Restrictions Roadmap.

Should the easing of restrictions not result in a significant spike in new cases across the ACT, the state government will move to the second phase of stage two from midnight on June 19, which will allow up to 50 people in open homes and on-site auctions.

“The current 20-person limit is too low for us to be assured that we can have everyone there without turning people away,” Ms Luton said.

“If the number of people at on-site auctions increases to 50 people, I’ll feel a lot more comfortable with that.”

Further south in Mawson, a three-bedroom home sold at an on-site auction which was simultaneously filmed as an online auction as well.

Bidding for the home at 3 Hannam Place kicked off at $650,000 and increased in $5000 increments between two on-site bidders, with an odd $2500 play in-between, until the price reached $670,000 in the opening bidder’s favour.

The same bidder then increased their own offer by $5000 which was all it took for the hammer to fall.

“The campaign leading up to the auction was very busy. We had 70 people come through the property,” said listing agent Luke Revet of Blackshaw Manuka.

“People were attracted to the price guide of the home. Anything under $700,000 always has a lot of interest.”

The property had four registered bidders including one online, one over the phone and two on-site, Mr Revet said, adding that the 20-person limit was difficult to maintain, particularly in the front yard.

“We had a lot of friendly neighbours walk through and stop by to have a glance at the auction,” Mr Revet said.

“There was probably about 35 people there and all maintained the social distancing requirements … some neighbours also wanted to know the price value for their home themselves.”

Mr Revet noted one neighbour who stopped by the auction phoned him to sell their own house.

“There are genuine buyers who turn up and want to know how the market is going,” Mr Revet noted.

“There are quality buyers out there but not enough supply to cater to the demand … a lot of sellers are holding back but there are great results coming from the market despite what’s happening.”