Melbourne auctions: Investor beats first-home buyers in Northcote, pays $102,000 over reserve
The fresh outbreak of the coronavirus didn’t deter keen buyers in virus hotspot council areas, with six bidders putting their hands up at a Northcote auction and another three parties vying for a Brunswick home on Saturday.
In Northcote, 13 buyers registered to bid on a recently renovated two-bedroom terrace, with six of them weighing in at the auction.
It was one of 510 auctions scheduled in Melbourne on Saturday.
By evening, Domain Group had recorded a preliminary clearance rate of 59.4 per cent from 355 reported results. 42 properties were withdrawn from auction.
The home at 15 Latham Street had been hugely popular, McGrath auctioneer and listing agent Luke Brizzi said.
“We had 140 plus groups through, it was incredible,” he said. “But it goes to show there’s massive demand out there and the lack of stock is driving demand through the roof.”
A crowd had gathered outside the home during the open for inspection.
The auction opened just below the quoted price range of $1 million to $1.05 million, at $980,000.
It sold to an investor for $1,172,000, some $102,000 more than its reserve price. The rest of the underbidders were first-home buyers.
Mr Brizzi said the vendors, an upgrading family, were pleased with the sale.
He said the market looked set to absorb the shock of the new COVID-19 outbreak while pent-up demand dissipates.
“It’ll stay like this for a couple of months, but we’ll see what happens in spring with the economy,” Mr Brizzi said.
Earlier in Brunswick, a two-bedroom deceased estate failed to sell at auction despite three bidders contending for the keys.
The terrace house had been listed for sale with a quoted price guide of $800,000 to $850,000.
Ahead of the auction, Walshe and Whitelock listing agent Michael Sowersby said there had been about 50 groups through the property during the campaign, and young buyers were interested in renovating the dated and rundown home.
Proceedings began at $700,000 and it was slow going.
After taking one bid of $20,000, auctioneer David Sowersby began accepting lower increments from the three buyers, finally passing the home in at $745,000 after subdued bidding.
The top bidders went inside to negotiate and declined to buy the property at the reserve of $800,000. An agreement between the estate and the buyers couldn’t be reached.
Earlier in Flemington, a two-bedroom townhouse sold in post-auction negotiations.
Nelson Alexander auctioneer and listing agent Ryan Currie said he had two buyers lined up for 5/63 Crown Street. One dropped out after buying a property earlier in the day but he held the auction anyway.
“The only bidder, she wanted to buy it and we wanted to be transparent,” he said.
The auction began at $720,000 and passed in at $761,000 after a few genuine and vendor bids.
The buyer paid $777,500 for the home. Mr Currie said the sellers had held the property for years since developing the block, but were freeing up capital for a tree-change.
“With this whole COVID thing it’s forced people to make sea and tree-changes earlier,” he said. “They’re saying: ‘Why not just do it now and get moving with it?’”
In Albert Park, a three-bedroom terrace passed in and sold after auction too.
The home at 101 Ashworth Street had interest from multiple parties and bidding took the price a short distance from $1,425,000 to $1.43 million. The quoted price range was $1.4 million to $1.45 million.
It sold post-auction for $1,485,000 to a home buyer.
Property Mavens chief executive Miriam Sandkuhler watched the sale and said buyers appeared to be sitting on their hands.
“There were other interested parties but there were a lot of people sitting and watching,”she said.
“They think they’ll be able to pick up a bargain in September if the bottom falls out of the market but in these areas vendors will just wait and ride it out.”
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