First home buyer beats investors for $771,000 Altona North house at auction
A first home buyer beat investors and downsizers for a stylishly renovated two-bedroom house in Altona North at auction on Saturday, paying $771,000.
Six bidders fought for the keys to 17A Ararat Street and half of those were first home buyers, looking to get into the market before the next interest rate rise expected in August.
Agents say the right properties are attracting buyers, although some potential purchasers are sitting on their hands, waiting to see how low property prices will fall.
In Altona North, buyers tried to lowball the sale with an opening offer of $500,000 that was rejected by Ray White Altona director and auctioneer Richard Anile, before another bid of $600,000 was accepted.
A flurry of bids followed, and the competition pushed the sale price to $771,000 – $121,000 above the reserve.
A young man, a first home buyer, was the winning bidder. He plans to live there.
Anile said first home buyers are in the market for properties at the right price and have set budgets despite interest rate rises.
“The first-home buyer market is strong,” Anile said after the auction. “They’re getting in and buying when they’re ready … they’re not going to wait for another six months to see what happens.”
It was one of 594 auctions scheduled in Melbourne on Saturday. By evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary clearance rate of 55.6 per cent from 426 reported results, while 57 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.
First home buyers also bought an almost 100-year-old home in Thornbury after it passed in at auction.
The two-bedroom home, at 292 St Georges Road, a mix of modern features and Edwardian-period charm, passed in on a bid of $810,000. After a quick negotiation it sold for $850,000 – the top end of the asking price range.
McGrath Northcote selling agent and auctioneer Matthew McIntosh said bidding opened with a vendor bid of $800,000. The ultimate buyers, a young couple, made another $10,000 bid before the property passed in.
McIntosh said inflationary pressures, including the rising cost of petrol and food, had been affecting the market as well as buyers’ budgets.
“I think the market [here] will come good again, there’s lots of people still out there,” he said.
In Reservoir, a home that featured a very Collingwood bedroom passed in for $910,000 despite several bidders.
The property, at 31 Wattle Grove, which had a price range of $850,000 to $930,000 drew three bidders. The highest was still in negotiations at the time of publication.
The six-bedroom property, which had a layout that included two homes in one, needed a lot of work and was being sold as a knock-down and rebuild project.
Ray White Preston selling agent Chris Michael said he expected the property to sell, even if a deal couldn’t be made with the highest bidder.
“I would like to think so, it’s not ridiculously overpriced, and generally speaking the quote price shows value,” Michael said.
In Carnegie, a three-bedroom home at 4 Shepparson Avenue, in the same family for more than 80 years, sold after passing in on a single bid of $1.61 million.
It sold under negotiation to a family for $1.7 million – the top end of the asking price range.
Woodards Carnegie director Ruth Roberts said it was a strong result, despite only one bidder making an offer.
“I think people are nervous about conditions and interest rate rises – some of the buyers are thinking if they wait a month then prices may be cheaper,” Roberts said.
One of the bigger results for the weekend was the sale of a five-bedroom home at 4 Edward Street, Essendon.
The home sold under the hammer for $2,715,000, just above the price range of $2.5 million to $2.7 million.
The buyer, a builder, swooped in to make a single $5000 bid to win the keys from two other bidders.
Jellis Craig Moonee Valley director and auctioneer Christian Lonzi said bidding opened at $2.5 million before a flurry of bids pushed it to $2.7 million, when it was called on the market. The final three bids of $5000 were, he said, “like pulling teeth”.
The home needed a renovation or rebuild, he said.
“The buyer is planning to live there, but he hasn’t made his mind up yet about what he’ll do. All the other people there were wanting to renovate the home because it has good bones,” Lonzi said.
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