Melbourne auctions: Two-bedroom Kensington terrace in need of renovation fetches $1.13 million
A two-bedroom Kensington terrace in need of renovation fetched $1.13 million in a quick auction on Saturday, soaring $150,000 above reserve.
Bidding for the two-bedroom home at 53 Lambeth Street, Kensington, started at $820,000, but was pushed up to $950,000 immediately after by a buyers’ advocate.
The quoted price range for the property was $900,000 to $980,000.
It was one of 649 auctions held in Melbourne on Saturday.
By evening, Domain Group had recorded a preliminary clearance rate of 76.6 per cent from 475 reported results.
Nelson Alexander agent and auctioneer Ryan Currie said the Kensington auction had whipped by.
“It was a fast auction, it didn’t stall at any point,” he said. “Really fast, confident bidding.”
The buyers, a young couple, had enlisted the buyers’ agent to help them purchase the property.
It sold for $1.13 million, $150,000 more than reserve.
“[The buyers] were coming back from Oxford in the UK,” Mr Currie said. “They came back in October-November and it had been a bit hard for them to buy a place.
“They engaged a buyers’ advocate because they were a bit rattled by the prices and the market coming up a bit.”
He said the home could be altered to the new owners’ tastes easily, which was part of what attracted interest.
“It was that quintessential two-bedroom Victorian home, in the sense that it was brick, someone could put their own stamp on it because it needed to be renovated sooner rather than later,” Mr Currie said.
“It had a central living area and dining room, which people like.
“It wasn’t an open plan so it would be easier for people to make it into a three-bedroom. It was a good floor plan for that part of the market.”
In Epping, a first-home buyer picked up the keys to a three-bedroom house in another hotly contested auction.
Ray White’s Con Tsalkos said half of the buyers who registered to bid for 24 Kinlora Street were priced out quickly.
“I had 10 registered bidders but only five active in the end. Some couldn’t get involved,” he said. “It was strong bidding from the start, it opened up at $500,000.”
The quoted price guide was $565,000 to $620,000 and the reserve was set at $600,000.
It sold to the first-home buyer for $645,000. Mr Tsalkos said investors were growing more cautious, leaving the outer suburbs to younger homebuyers.
“First-home buyers on these $600,000-mark properties, they’re back in the market and feeling confident,” he said. “If this was the same campaign 18 months ago it would have been only investors.
“It was pretty much just first-home buyers [today]. There were a couple of investors who didn’t get involved, and one flew in from Sydney but didn’t put her hands up.”
In Armadale, a mostly original Victorian terrace sold for $1.66 million.
Wakelin Property Advisory’s Jarrod McCabe said the location at 3 Cambridge Street was sought after because the streetscape was one of the most consistent in the suburb.
“It’s always an area that people have a lot of interest in and when properties come up in there, people always are keen on it,” the buyers’ agent said.
“This was one of the more basic ones there, not a lot has been done to it.”
Three buyers contended for the home. Bidding started at $1.4 million, the bottom of the quoted price range. It was announced on the market at $1.6 million and sold for $60,000 more.
Mr McCabe said there was scope to renovate the two-bedroom home, with dated features towards the back of the house.
“[The sale price is] not massive compared to the quote, but it’s a house that needs a lot of work on it,” he said. “It’s not as though it’s falling down or anything. The kitchen is a bit basic, it’s in a lean-to at the rear.
“The kitchen, living and bathroom area at the rear really needs to be redone. There’s still plenty of scope there.”
Earlier in Abbotsford, a two-bedroom home sold in another competitive auction for $165,000 more than the vendor’s hopes.
The townhouse at 209 Langridge Street mostly attracted interest from owner-occupiers, Jellis Craig’s Simon Shrimpton said.
“I felt an owner-occupier would be the buyer for this because it is such a high-quality residence,” he said. “It was built in 2011, but you’d be fooled into thinking it had just been built, it was in such good order.”
Bidding for the home began at $960,000 and quickly climbed past the reserve of $1.01 million.
It sold to a couple from Collingwood for $1,175,000.
Mr Shrimpton said the market was improving.
“It’s running very strongly at the moment and there’s a lot of unfulfilled buying orders from late last year,” he said. “Market confidence is back and I’m starting to see buying appraisals line up with what we were seeing in 2017.”
In Box Hill, a development site passed in on a vendor bid of $1.8 million, with no offers from the crowd.
The vendors still live in the home, a three-bedroom Tudor-style house at 49 William Street that is hemmed in on both sides by developments.
“Behind it is commercially zoned, next to it is a four-storey apartment block, and on the other side there’s six three-storey townhouses,” selling agent Dennis Dellas of RT Edgar Boroondara said. “It’s actually good value for money, I don’t care what anyone says.”
The home was listed for sale with a price guide of $1.75 million to $1.85 million, and Mr Dellas said the buyer would now be asking for $1,838,000.
“At the peak of the market this was worth about $2 million. We’re not far off that now,” he said. “The market has improved. The bottom was in March.
“Those losses have been made up.”
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