Kirribilli car spot sells for $120,000 at auction

The scramble for space in Sydney reached a new level on Saturday when a crowd of 60 gathered in Kirribilli to battle for a 12-square-metre plot of cement.

The auction of a nondescript car spot had some neighbours scratching their heads when it sold for $120,000 under the hammer. Others were rubbing their hands together at the prospect they might be sitting on parking gold. 

The Kirribilli car spot was one of 691 properties scheduled for auction on Saturday.

By Saturday evening Domain Group had collected 572 results and put the clearance rate at 83.3 per cent.

The result is slightly below the 85.1 per cent achieved last Saturday when there were only 377 homes up for grabs due to long weekend.

“A result below 85 per cent has become a bit unusual so this could be the first sign of a cooler winter market,” said Domain Group senior economist Dr Andrew Wilson.

The parking spot at 29 Carabella Street had a reserve price of $50,000 and attracted interest from neighbours and residents of the adjoining harbourside building.

Auctioneer Edward Riley acknowledged the novelty of auctioning such a small slice of a premier suburb.

“Whether you’ve got a Peugeot, Ferrari, Porsche or Ford, your car will have a fabulous view,” he told the gathering crowd.

“You can even add value by sweeping the leaves from the corner and re-painting the lines.”

Bidding began at $25,000, building to a rapid-fire crescendo between two parties.

It was bought by an investor who owns an apartment in the building.

Nigel Mukhi of McGrath Neutral Bay said in a decade of selling real estate he had never had a listing like it.

“It is unprecedented, so we had nothing to compare it with,” he said.

“We based the price on what it had been renting for and worked backward.”

Under bidder Garry Green, who is selling an apartment in 29 Carabella Street, missed out on what he had hoped would be a second car space to add to his small portfolio.

After seeing the result, he immediately began to re-consider his sales strategy.

“I now wonder whether I should talk to my agent about auctioning the space separately from the unit because my unit has a space of its own,” he said.

While the crowd waited for the auction to start, another auction could be heard inside the building a few floors up.

Would-be car spot buyers strained their ears to hear the apartment upstairs sell for $1,283,000.

The sum is $200,000 more than was achieved for an apartment one floor below at 29 Carabella Street which sold for $1.08 million in March.

“The extra $200,000 was a function of not just being one floor higher, but this one today had a car space,” Mr Mukhi said.

Although there are no residential prospects for the car spot, the neighbours agreed it would be a great position to view the New Year’s Eve fireworks.

In recent weeks, a secure car space in Potts Point made headlines when it sold for $260,000. That topped last year’s sale for a covered car space in Elizabeth Bay which sold for $210,000 in September.