Melbourne auctions: Black Rock home sells for $2.76 million after a rapid-fire virtual auction
A local buyer has secured a coveted piece of Black Rock’s Golden Triangle precinct, buying a five-bedroom house at a rapid-fire virtual auction for $2.76 million – $360,000 more than the top end of the asking price range.
Two persistent bidders battled it out for the house at 12 Glenmore Crescent, with bidding slow to start, but eventually taking off as both prospective buyers pulled out all the stops to win the keys.
It was one of 205 auctions scheduled to go ahead as virtual auctions in Melbourne on Saturday.
By evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary clearance rate of 60.3 per cent from 123 reported results, while 56 auctions were withdrawn.
Of the auctions that did go ahead as virtual auctions, 71 per cent sold. And 36 homes sold at auction, while 72 homes sold before auction.
The generous home on 918 square metres was listed just under two weeks ago with an asking range of $2.2 million to $2.4 million.
Buyers had 10 days to view the property in person at a private inspection before Melbourne’s stage 4 COVID-19 restrictions came into effect, moving all inspections online, and prompting Ray White Carnegie agent and auctioneer Tom Grieve to bring the auction forward from August 22.
Stage 4 also mandates agents working from home and not their offices, meaning agents who were conducting virtual auctions today did so from home.
“We have our online auction gear set up in our office, and I literally just packed it up and set it up in my garage,” Mr Grieve said.
Despite this being “a bit unusual” the auction went off without a hitch. Mr Grieve started the proceedings with a vendor bid of $2.15 million, which was hesitantly met by the eventual buyer.
One other bidder jumped in and the race was on – first in $25,000 increments and then, after Mr Grieve confirmed with the vendor that the property was on the market at $2.45 million, in $10,000 and $5000 bids.
Vendor Nigel Beeby said he was pleased with the result, especially since COVID-19 had made selling more challenging. He said he decided to press on with the auction as he had recently lost work due to the pandemic.
“It’s a relief in these times,” Mr Beeby said. “The online auction was actually a better experience, I think, than being out in the cold in front of the house.”
Mr Grieve said it could be four or five years before another home in the tightly held area came onto the market – and buyers were keen to get in.
“Even at the best of times, people love this street,” he said.
In Reservoir, a fixer-upper on a corner block sold under the virtual hammer for $652,000 after four first-home buyers fought it out.
The two-bedroom deceased estate at 165 Henty Street was listed with a price guide of $600,000 to $660,000 and sold near the top of the range.
Bidding began at $580,000 and rose in increments as small as $1000, quickly surpassing the reserve of $630,000.
“We were pretty happy to get it above vendor expectations,” Hocking Stuart auctioneer Joe Ledda said.
“They were very realistic, it was a deceased estate … it was really just a block of land.”
Although his team has been doing online auctions since March, the biggest challenge in working from home this week was not having a support team in the same room, Mr Ledda said, adding there were also some small lags in the video stream.
Otherwise, he said, the process went “reasonably well” and the first-home buyer segment is showing “strong demand”.
“It is like a normal auction, it just depends on the home, location and price.”
In the outer west, first-home buyers bought a four bedroom house in Delahey for $650,500 at a spirited auction with multiple bidders – mostly other first-home hopefuls.
The property at 9 Cooper Court was listed with an asking price of $550,000 to $590,000 and the first bid of $600,000 hit the reserve straight out of the gate, listing agent George Skizas from Ray White Taylors Lakes said.
Three bidders threw their hats in the ring initially, bidding up to $620,000 at which point Mr Skizas announced the property was on the market.
The eventual buyer had a family member bid on their behalf – “they were a bit nervous”, Mr Skizas said – and came into the competition half way through.
Another new bidder joined them toward the end, and the two parties ping-ponged in increments as small as $300 to the eventual fall of the gavel at $650,500.
Mr Skizas said the vendors were keen to sell, as they had purchased another property subject to the sale of this one.
“They’re ecstatic,” Mr Skizas said. “It shows auction are still working if you have the property priced right.”
On the other side of the city, a three-bedroom deceased estate in Burwood East sold for $953,000 – more than $100,000 over the reserve – to a family who had never inspected the house.
The home at 53 Benwerrin Drive was on the market for the first time in 31 years, listing agent Steven Zervas from Fletchers Blackburn said, and the family were keen to get the property sold.
“It was on the market at $840,000,” Mr Zervas said. “There were six bidders and the auction lasted for nearly an hour.”
He said he had to stop allowing small rises of $500, but that still didn’t stop the bidding – they went back to offering increments of $1000.
The eventual buyers were a family from Mount Waverley who had never seen the inside of the house and only registered to bid late on Saturday morning.
“They did a couple of drive-bys, they know the area, so they said they didn’t need to see it,” Mr Zervas said.
With Elizabeth Redman
We recommend
We thought you might like
States
Capital Cities
Capital Cities - Rentals
Popular Areas
Allhomes
More
