Melbourne auctions: Footscray apartment in converted tyre factory sells for $705,000
A two-bedroom apartment in Footscray’s converted Olympic Tyre and Rubber Company building sold for $705,000 under the hammer to a first-home buyer on Saturday.
The result – exactly $100,000 above reserve – came after six bidders, including one on the phone, fought for the keys to 4/72 Cross Street.
It was one of 377 auctions scheduled in Melbourne on Saturday.
By evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary clearance rate of 73.9 per cent from 306 reported results, while 34 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.
The apartment was listed with a price guide of $570,000 to $620,000.
Bidding opened at $580,000 and quickly rose in increments of $10,000 and then $5000, with the auction over in less than 15 minutes.
“It goes to show the competition that’s in the market at the moment,” listing agent Joseph Luppino of Village Real Estate Seddon said.
The vendors, said to be “thrilled” with the result, had purchased the property for their parents to live in.
“I don’t think they ever foresaw the sale price getting into small house price territory,” he said.
Their parents had recently relocated, and the vendors had never had the intention of keeping the property as an investment, Mr Luppino said.
The highlight of the property was the large outdoor terrace area, bordered by the original factory walls.
“It’s the biggest outdoor area that I’ve come across in an apartment without stepping up into a penthouse,” he said.
The size of the outdoor area had initially attracted enquiries from families with small children who would otherwise be looking at houses.
But it was first-home buyers who had come out in force in the latter half of the campaign.
“The competition [among first-home buyers] is just fierce,” Mr Luppino said.
“Definitely from what we’ve seen around the inner-west market in the up to $800,000 range, first-home buyers seem to be the larger band of buyers.”
Footscray wasn’t the only part of the city to see first-home-buyer action.
A two-bedroom terrace at 10 Main Street, Coburg sold via online auction for $840,000, well above its reserve of $700,000.
There were nine active bidders for the property. Bidding opened at $630,000 before jumping to $650,000 immediately.
Offers came in increments as low as $1000 at one point of the auction.
“It just goes to show how many buyers are interested in buying around the area,” listing agent Michael Chan of McGrath Coburg/Brunswick said.
“[With] this one we had pretty much all the obstacles against us. It is a tenanted property so [we] had to work with the tenant and one-on-one inspections. All up we conducted 64 inspections,” he said.
The winning bidder was a first-home buyer currently renting in Abbotsford, Mr Chan said.
The buyer intends to move in and renovate the property, which has the potential to extend either into the backyard or upwards.
Mr Chan said the listing had appealed to professionals seeking a convenient location, with interest coming from as far as Queensland and NSW.
“I think it was mainly people looking to relocate back into Victoria who had their plans stopped because they couldn’t get back here,” he said. “People who couldn’t travel from other areas had people they could trust locally to inspect the property for them.”
Onsite auctions have been permitted in Melbourne since last weekend with limited crowds but the sheer number of registered bidders – 23 – meant it would have been impossible to conduct the auction in-person and adhere to stringent COVID-safe directives, Mr Chan said.
“We just couldn’t do it, we had too many people. It was easier to stick with the online platform.”
Further north, an extended California bungalow at 34 Alexandra Street, Greensborough passed in at auction.
Listing agent Aaron Yeats of Jellis Craig Greensborough failed to garner any bids at auction but an engaged couple from St Kilda made an offer shortly afterwards, after the future groom was able to speak to his fiance, who had been at a dress fitting during the auction.
It was listed with a price guide of $1.35 million to $1,425,000.
Mr Yeats said more young and first-home buyers were turning to Greensborough in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It would be safe to say that younger people are recognising the value of having more space and [are now] planning to not necessarily start off with a small home but jump to somewhere like this where you can work from home and eventually have kids there too,” he said.
Inner-city buyers have always made up around 50 per cent of Mr Yeats’ clientele but this has increased since the pandemic.
“There’s no doubt that it’s very prolific now – there’s a lot of people from the inner-north, suburbs like Northcote, Preston and Thornbury as well as the inner-east,” he said.
The four-bedroom, two-bathroom property had been extended from the original 1935-built two-bedroom bungalow by the vendors, who had owned the home since 2013.
They are planning to relocate to another property they own closer to their children’s schools.
In Frankston, first-home buyers beat out six other active bidders via online auction for the keys to 7 Abbeygate Court.
The four-bedroom, two-bathroom house, set in the Lakewood Estate, sold for $813,000.
Listing agent Adam Price of Ray White Frankston said the reserve was $780,000.
A mix of local and out-of-area buyers had been interested, Mr Price said, with many attracted to the peace and quiet offered by the Lakewood Estate address.
“You don’t get any traffic that isn’t local [in the Lakewood Estate]. It’s really quiet in that area,” Mr Price said.
The buyers – young professionals – were relocating from further toward the city.
The vendors, who were downsizing, had bought the home in 2004.
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