Melbourne auctions: Glen Iris home sells for more than $500,000 above reserve
Wealthy buyers stretched at least $520,000 past the reserve price set for a multimillion-dollar home in leafy Glen Iris during a hot auction on Saturday.
The four-bedroom residence at 66 Rosedale Road attracted strong competition from three prospective buyers, one of whom jumped in at the last moment to secure the property.
Bidding started at $2.7 million, just below the top of the quoted price range of $2.5 million to $2.75 million.
Marshall White auctioneer Andrew Hayne did not disclose the exact reserve, but announced the house on the market at the $2.9 million level – after which the pace showed no signs of slowing.
The property sold to a family who entered the fray on the third-last bid. They spent $3.42 million on it and only bid twice.
Mr Hayne said the blow-out result was because keen buyers were competing for fewer homes.
“It’s a lot of money,” he said. “I asked the underbidders what they were going to buy if they missed this house and they couldn’t answer me.”
The house was built in the 1990s and some rooms were recently renovated, Mr Hayne said.
“It’s a home in demand in the leafy suburb of Glen Iris. Beautifully presented, beautifully maintained and lots of accommodation,” he said. “It’s 886 square metres and everyone likes a large block of land.”
Mr Hayne said the unrendered brick facade added to the appeal, because it was easier to maintain.
It was one of 926 homes taken to auction in Melbourne on Saturday.
By evening, Domain Group had recorded a 78.5 per cent clearance rate from 673 reported results.
Later in Albert Park, an unliveable house also sold for more than its reserve, despite a heritage overlay and its near-total state of disrepair.
Hocking Stuart’s David Wood said 97 St Vincent Street was a deceased estate.
“It was basically falling down and needed to be rebuilt from the ground up,” he said. “There’s a heritage nature to the facade even though it didn’t look like it needed to be saved.
“It was originally an 1870s house.”
Mr Wood said a developer bought the house for $900,000. The reserve was $850,000, and there were three bidders.
“I am buoyed by the fact that this needed more than your average renovation so it was a strong result in the marketplace,” he said.
In Clifton Hill, another four-bedroom home bust through its reserve, selling for $2.02 million.
The recently renovated 59 Dwyer Street was popular at auction, with six bidders going head to head.
“All the bidders were family buyers, most of them local, looking to upsize from their current residence,” auctioneer and Jellis Craig agent Simon Shrimpton said. “A lot of people recognise there aren’t a lot of four-bedroom homes.
“It was a very good quality renovation and it was a single-level home, which was very attractive.”
The reserve was $1.8 million, the top of the quoted price range. Before Mr Shrimpton could announce the house on the market, one of the buyers upped the price by $80,000 in one bid, jumping from $1.82 million to $1.9 million.
“It was a good, strategic move,” Mr Shrimpton said. “I think he recognised there was a lot of competition here today and he used that strategy to try to spook some of the other bidders.
“Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t, but a lot of people here had more money than $1.9 million.”
The terrace sold for $220,000 more than its reserve.
“There’s not a lot of sales like this because there aren’t a lot of properties like this,” Mr Shrimpton said. “I wish I had five more, I would have sold them all today.”
In Hawthorn East, a home with a flexible floor plan sold to a family who beat out a downsizer.
Auctioneer Anton Zhouk, of the eponymously titled agency, said proceedings for 20 Bonfield Avenue were drawn out.
“It started at $2.22 million,” he said. “There was no bidding until we had a half-time break and then it was like pulling teeth. The auction went for about 30 minutes.
“It ended up being one thousands and two thousands for the last $80,000. They took about a minute each bid.”
The area’s schools were the clincher for the buyers, who paid $2,611,000 for the house, $211,000 more than the reserve.
“The family who bought it wanted to be a bit closer to the schools for the kids,” Mr Zhouk said.
Later in Thornbury, an investor beat a downsizer at auction for a two-bedroom unit.
Bidding for 4/79 Normanby Avenue was drawn-out and hard-fought, McGrath agent Tommasina Scanu said.
“It was going back and forth and it went up in five hundreds in the end and it was a really competitive auction,” she said.
“The buyer was an investor. What attracted them to this apartment was the proximity to public transport, because it was a boutique block and they all ended up being decisions as to why she wanted to invest there.”
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