Properties 'still selling well' at auction despite cooling market

Educated buyers with plenty of options in a cooling market wanted bang for their buck during Saturday auctions in Sydney, producing a mixed bag of results.

A three bedroom townhouse at 3/96 Hercules St in Dulwich Hill sold under the hammer for $1.55 million, a whopping $200,000 above reserve.

A strong opening bid of $1,395,000, again well above reserve, knocked out most of the competition against the seven registered bidders thanks to buyers’ agent Frank Russo from Search Find Invest, who led the race from beginning to end.

While two other groups threw their hat in the ring for the inner west property, it was no match for Mr Russo, who one-upped a young couple with increments that contained the figure eight, a “lucky number”, he said.

The house, on a 588-square metre block, was great value for money, according to Mr Russo, who was representing a young, female professional that wanted to become the owner-occupier.

“The same property in the east would have another million in front of it, at least,” said Mr Russo

“Proximity to the inner city is very similar to the east and it’s even better than the lower north shore, yet you get much better value. You still get the lifestyle, the coffee shops. The transport is probably better than any part of Sydney.”

Selling agent and auctioneer Shad Hassan, of The Agency Inner West, said the result defied everyone’s expectations.

“I think it went really well. It’s well above what we thought it was going to sell at. So the buyers’ agent opened it up with a really strong bid, which obviously knocked out a few people, but … it left two other people competing for it which was really good,” he said.

“This is a good example that properties are still selling well and I think it’ll give other buyers confidence to know that people aren’t just holding back and sitting around doing nothing.”

Equally pleased with the result was vendor Corey Tai, who was potentially expecting a weaker result.

“We’re really, really happy. We were kind of hoping [to get a strong result] but were prepared for it not too,” he said.

The sale was in line with the suburb’s median house price of $1.5 million and the property has almost doubled in value since it last traded in 2012 for $860,000.

It was one of 511 properties scheduled for auctions on Saturday across the harbour city. Of 321 reported results, Domain recorded a clearance rate of just 55.1 per cent. 

It was a slight worsening of last week’s already low rate of 55.2 per cent. 

North of the bridge, there was another strong sale at 49 Frenchs Rd in Willoughby with four bidders vying for the keys to the house.

An opening bid of $1.85 million kicked off what was two-horse race for three bedroom house.

The property, on 538-square metres sold $50,000 above reserve at $2,025,000 to a local buyer from the suburb next door, Naremburn.

JPA auctioneer James Pratt said with land size getting smaller and smaller, buyers wanted more for their money because they were recognising land size was a big deal in Sydney.

Meanwhile, a rare pair of Victorian terraces on Hargrave St in Paddington passed in at $3.45 million, $5000 under reserve despite three registered bidders.

“It was a true snapshot of where Sydney property is up to at present. There were two great properties in a great suburb with traditionally strong clearance rates but still buyers are prepared to pull back a little to make sure they’re not paying too much,” Mr Pratt said.

Similarly, a three bedroom property in Crows Nest also passed in at $2,705,00, falling $245,000 short of the reserve.

Despite attracting two of the four bidders to participate in the auction, astute buyers wanted to negotiate afterwards.

“Buyers are recognising the value in a property and they’re recognising. They’re not committing with urgency like this time last year. It’s just a different auction process,” Mr Pratt said.

Elsewhere in Sydney

SOLD $1.90 million
Artarmon
2 Drake Street
3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1 car spaces

There were seven registered bidders for this three bedroom property which sits on a 440-square metre block of land. A strong opening bid of $1.5 million kicked off this auction and bidding tracked strongly, going up by $100,000 increments twice before it slowed paced to $10,000. It eventually sold under the hammer at $1.9 million. The five groups who threw their hat in the ring were a mixture of buyers but a middle-aged couple relocating from Northbridge nabbed the keys for the house at $5000 above reserve. It sold through selling agent Jeremy Ong of Laing+Simmons Artarmon.

SOLD $1,810,000 million
Epping
41 Ray Road
3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 2 car spaces

A crowd of 70 people gathered in the backyard of this north shore property as they watched it go under the hammer. Selling agent Wayne Vaughan of McGrath Epping had his work cut out for him despite an opening bid of $1.6 million. “It came pretty quickly but it [the auction] … eased [up] on pace and we had to work for it.” Five of the seven registered bidders helped the price go up in increments of $50,000 down to $5000 at the pointy end and it eventually sold for $1.81 million, $10,000 above reserve, to a local middle-aged couple.

41 Ray Rd, Epping Photo: Supplied

SOLD $1,405,000 million
Pyrmont
406/21 Cadigal Avenue
2 bedrooms, 2 bathroom, 1 car spaces

It’s a case of second time lucky for this 118-square metre apartment which was on the market for a second time as a mortgagee sale. It successfully sold under the hammer to a first-home buyer who was up against seasoned buyers. Early bidding started at $1.2 million and went up to $1.3 million where it slowed until a vendor bid pushed it up to the adjusted reserve of $1.405 million, $15,000 below the reserve price. Selling agent Matthew Mifsud of Raine&Horne City Living said it was an “exceptional result”. It last sold for $850,000 in 2011.