A four-bedroom home in Albert Park sold for $11.11 million at a hot auction on Saturday, with competitive bidding pushing the price more than $2 million above the reserve.
Built in 1874 for John Danks, the former mayor of Emerald Hill, 88 St Vincent Place North was always going to command a strong result as homes of this magnitude rarely come up for sale
Around 300 people turned out for the auction of the French-style Victorian home, which was one of 1062 auctions scheduled in Melbourne on Saturday.
By evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary clearance rate of 71.1 per cent from 812 reported results, while 113 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.
The sale kicked off with a vendor bid of $8.2 million – the lower end of the property’s estimate – which was hastily followed by a flurry of $100,000 bids from three parties.
The six-figure raises kept flowing in until the $10.5 million mark, at which point the battle narrowed to just two individuals.
Ultimately, a Melbournian new to the Albert Park area was victorious, securing the historic property in one of the city’s most revered and valuable streets.
The vendor, who had owned the family home for several years, was thrilled with the result, said selling agent Oliver Bruce, director of Marshall White Port Phillip.
The result was a positive indicator of resilient buyer demand at the top end of the real estate market, he added.
Another property that soared above its price estimate was an unrenovated four-bedroom house in Toorak which sold for $6.34 million.
Bidding on 2 Kent Court was a protracted affair, with the auction running to nearly 30 minutes.
The solid brick home on a 559-square-metre block attracted four parties, and although bidding started at a crawl, the final act of the drawn-out auction was pure theatre, with auctioneer Jeremy Fox of RT Edgar amusingly tagging in a colleague to conclude the sale.
The home sold for about $150,000 above the reserve through Max Ruttner, also of RT Edgar Toorak. He said the winning party planned to demolish the existing dwelling to build a new family home.
Across town in Coburg, a three-bedroom home sold for an impressive $1,367,500 after a fiercely fought online auction.
The contemporary two-storey brick dwelling at 40 Sargood Street attracted seven registered bidders, all of who actively bid on the property.
Selling agent Jarrod Couch of Barry Plant Coburg said it was a strong result for the area, and the sale price had exceeded the vendor’s expectations.
In Malvern East, a four-bedroom weatherboard home sold for $1,842,500 to a young family who had just relocated from Perth.
The home at 50 Abbotsford Avenue boasted a four-car garage and had been owned by the same family for the last 70 years.
Leigh Kelepouris of Ray White Oakleigh said it was a great result for the area, especially considering the home directly across the road, 52 Abbotsford Avenue, sold a few weeks ago for $1,806,000.
Also in Melbourne’s southeast, a four-bedroom house in Clayton South sold for $1,248,000, well above the property’s $980,000 to $1,050,000 price estimate.
Six house hunters registered to bid on 24 Brentwood Close, which sits on a 582-square-metre block.
The home sold through Laura Voinea of Area Specialist Keysborough.
In Williamstown, a five-bedroom house passed in at $4.5 million – $400,000 short of the property’s $4.9 million reserve.
While some 50 people turned out for the auction, 11 Hannan Street drew just two bidders.
Selling agent Wayne Elly of Greg Hocking Elly Partners was hopeful the property would sell in the coming days, noting one bidder made a post-auction offer of $4.55 million.
A four-bedroom house in Doncaster East also failed to sell under the hammer, passing in at $1,465,000.
The price rose to $1.47 million in post-auction negotiations, however, the 648-square-metre block at 7 Gainsborough Street had yet to sell by Saturday afternoon.
Selling agent Richard Kurz of Woodards Camberwell suggested the mixed results across Melbourne this weekend could be an indication that the market is starting to cool slightly – a position backed up by figures from Domain’s most recent House Price Report, which shows six out of nine Melbourne regions saw a decrease in median house and unit prices over the September quarter.