Two Brisbane homes sell for the first time ever at auction

Until Saturday, the house at 44 Khartoum Street, Gordon Park had never been sold.

Former owner Terry Drew said it was difficult to sell the house, which had been in his family for generations.

“It was just that circumstances made this come about at this time, I’ve got to look after her ladyship here,” he said, gesturing to wife Wendy. “I’ve got to sell the place if I don’t want her to leave me, how’s that?”

The two-bedroom, one-bathroom house went to auction on Saturday morning, with a small crowd of neighbours and five registered bidders present.

Bidding was slow to start, with Harcourts chief auctioneer Mitch Peereboom​ struggling to get the two active bidders to progress much further past the opening bid of $560,000.

Both active bidders expressed frustration of not knowing whether the house was close to being on the market. One bidder, a buyers’ agent, remarked: “I’m bidding against myself here.”

After bidding paused at $650,000, the second bidder upped her price to $660,000 to put the house on the market, but was quickly outbid by the buyers’ agent at $665,000, which won him the auction.

Mr Drew called the house the ‘Grand Old Lady’. It was gifted to him by his mother, who had in turn received it from her parents.

Mr Drew’s grandparents and their siblings were given the land by their parents, who had purchased enough to give each of their children a parcel as they left home and got married. Mrs Drew estimated the parcels were bought for £300.

Each block was then handed down through the family, but from the 1960s to the 1990s, most of the original owners left or passed away.

Mr Drew’s ancestors, the Hoveys, lived in the area since the 1800s and Mr Drew was the last of his family to have sold one of the houses. “It was convenient. I hadn’t been out of the place until a lady dragged me away,” Mr Drew said, as Mrs Drew laughed.

The buyers’ agent said the house would be renovated and used as an investment property, but Mr and Mrs Drew were welcome back to see the finished property. 

South of the river in Yeerongpilly, another home sold for the first time at auction on Saturday.

The house at 19 Albemarle Street was bought by Roy Fisher’s grandparents around the turn of the century. It was given to Mr Fisher and wife Valencia about 70 years ago and they raised two kids there.

“I’m going to miss a lot of things of course,” Mr Fisher said. “You get to used to a place.”

“It’s time to go of course, we aren’t getting any younger.”

Mr and Mrs Fisher are 97 and 89 respectively. The only bathroom was downstairs under the house and they could no longer handle the stairs. The couple planned to move closer to their kids on Brisbane’s north side.

Allom Property group’s auctioneer Bruce Allom auctioned the property, with five groups signed up to bid.

Bidding started low at $450,000 and was slow to climb to the reserve. After pausing at $535,000, @Realty agent Matthew Quinn negotiated a bid of $580,000 and the house was on the market.

The three-bedroom house sold for $630,000 to developers with no concrete plans of what to do with the 810 square metre block.

Like 44 Khartoum Street, the home is almost completely in original condition, with an extension added to the back of the house in the 1960s.

Mr Quinn said the house was a rare buy. “Houses this old, you don’t see them this far out,” he said, but he admitted the old house needed some work. “It’s a complete renovator.” He said the home had the potential to go toe-to-toe with million dollar plus properties in Yeerongpilly.

“Yeerongpilly has very expensive homes in there,” he said. “So what you’d do is lift it to legal height and increase your floor area as much as you can; you’d probably make it into a four-bed, two-bath home.”