Home sells for $1.8 million above the reserve at auction in Sydney's inner west

A seven-bedroom home in need of some major renovation in Sydney’s inner west sold under the hammer on Saturday for a whopping $1.8 million above the reserve.

The home at 20 Firth Avenue, Strathfield was snapped up for $5.8 million by a family, who are now planning to knock down and rebuild it.

Devine Real Estate Strathfield’s Steven Devine said the auction attracted eight registered bidders, six active, fighting it out for the property set on 1208 square metres of land.

SOLD - $5,800,000

20 Firth Avenue, Strathfield NSW 2135

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“It was a crazy auction,” Mr Devine said. “It’s a very strong market at the moment because people are looking to cash in before Christmas. We’ve had an influx of properties listed and they are selling quickly.”  

The sale was one of the biggest in Sydney at the weekend. The city’s preliminary auction clearance rate was 76.3 per cent after 776 scheduled auctions and 569 reported results. There were 74 properties withdrawn from auction.

These results followed a month of improving results for Sydney auctions in October. The clearance rate for the month sat at 67.8 per cent – a huge 32 percentage points higher than the COVID-19-affected market in April, Domain data revealed.

“This result points to a resilient Sydney property market that has withstood the devastating impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the economy,” Domain economist Trent Wiltshire said.

“The median auction price for houses was $1,535,000 in October, up 7.7 per cent from a year ago. The median auction price for units was $930,000, up 1.4 per cent from one year ago,” he said.

Another home in Strathfield – a six-bedroom home at 22 Woodward Avenue – also sold well, and was snapped up for $3,365,000.

SOLD - $3,365,000

22 Woodward Avenue, Strathfield NSW 2135

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Georges Ellis and Co’s Joseph Georges said the home, close to Santa Sabina College, attracted four registered bidders – all families – looking to upsize.

One of the families with young children were the winning bidders.

“There’s a lot more buyers out there, but they’re very picky, too,” Mr Georges said. “They’re not willing to settle.”

In Sydney’s south, a much sought-after home that hit the market for the first time in 64 years, sold for $4 million at auction on Saturday.

The three-bedroom, double-brick home at 28 Pleasant Way, Blakehurst, had seven registered bidders, but only one bid on the day to snap up the mostly original property overlooking Georges River.

SOLD - $4,000,000

28 Pleasant Way, Blakehurst NSW 2221

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The home was one of several sold at the weekend. The owners had held onto their properties for more than half a century.

Gavan Property selling agent Andre Levrault said more than 100 groups had been through the property, with interest coming from across Sydney and interstate.

“People from everywhere were interested,” Mr Levrault said. “It’s the last original street to waterfront house in the street.”

Another home at 102 Macauley Road, Stanmore, which had been in the same family for more than 50 years, sold for $1.82 million in a hotly contested auction. 

SOLD - $1,820,000

102 Macaulay Road, Stanmore NSW 2048

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Another family were the winning bidders, beating out three other families for the keys to the two-storey Edwardian semi, Ray White Surry Hills director Ercan Ersan said.

The vendors were selling up to move closer to their daughter who lived about 40 minutes away, and were celebrating their success on Saturday afternoon with a glass of bubbly.

“We ran out and bought some Moet straight afterwards and we were [all] celebrating with the new owners,” Mr Ersan said. 

A three-bedroom home in Earlwood in Sydney’s south-west, also owned by the same family for more than 50 years, sold for $2.29 million at auction.

The home at 40 Prince Edward Avenue attracted both families looking to own and occupy and developers looking to invest.

SOLD - $2,290,000

40 Prince Edward Avenue, Earlwood NSW 2206

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McGrath Leichhardt partner Alexandra Stamatiou-Buda said eight registered bidders, five of them active, competed for the keys.

A local family snapped up the property, which includes a pool, looking to use it as an investment before passing it on to their daughter, Ms Stamatiou-Buda said.

Although it sold above reserve, agents were tight-lipped about the exact reserve price.

“The vendors were delighted with the outcome,” Ms Stamatiou-Buda said.