Melbourne auctions start to get back to normal at one of the biggest weekends of 2020
While urgent property sales, also known as distressed sales, have not been flooding Melbourne’s property market in recent months, a multimillion-dollar home sold under the hammer after the bank took possession of it from a developer.
The four-bedroom home at 18 May Road, Toorak, was snapped up by a family for $3 million in the mortgagee’s auction on Saturday.
“The developer got his [new build] final certificate in March, which coincided with the COVID-19 lockdown,” selling agent and chief executive of Castran Gilbert Paul Castran said. “The mortgagee took possession and sold it.”
A young family who had been living in the suburbs outside the city, snapped up the home to be closer to the CBD, Mr Castran said. They were one of four registered and two active bidders on the property.
The auction was one of 979 scheduled in Melbourne at the weekend, one of the biggest auction weekends in Victoria of the year.
The preliminary auction clearance rate was 72.1 per cent after 774 results were reported. There were 79 properties withdrawn from auction and were counted as not sold as part of the clearance rate.
North of the Yarra River in Brunswick, a home that had no kitchen roof was snapped up by a first-home buyer who is planning to rebuild, renovate and live there.
The two-bedroom home at 32 Barrow Street attracted four bidders – who were builders or had links to the building industry – battle for the keys.
The property sold for $850,000, above the $780,000 reserve, Walshe & Whitelock director David Sowersby said.
“The vendor was very pleased with that,” said Mr Sowersby, who believed Melbourne’s market was getting back to normal after months of lockdown and restrictions because of the pandemic.
“Over the last couple of weeks, it’s really felt like things are getting back to normal,” he said.
One of the biggest results at the weekend was the auction of a five-bedroom home in Malvern East.
Though the price was undisclosed, records show the property at 109 Manning Road sold for $4,545,000.
Kay & Burton Armadale director Gowan Stubbings said there were four registered bidders, two of whom actively bid on the property.
Mr Stubbings said bidding was “ferocious” with a couple who lived just 200 metres from the property snapping it up from the under-bidders, a young family.
“They had walked past and admired the home since it was built [10 years ago] but never in their wildest dreams did they think they would own it.”
The house had been a very popular property given the shortage of family homes in the area for sale.
The vendors were now considering moving to the bayside area, he said.
Not far from Malvern East, a four-bedroom home at 41 Suffolk Road, Surrey Hills, sold under the hammer for $3.41 million.
Marshall White Boroondara’s Nicholas Franzmann said three bidders, two of them active, competed. Both were local families wanting to stay in the area.
“They love the aspect and schooling for them was very important,” Mr Franzmann said.
The vendors, who were empty nesters, were now deciding where they would be making their next move, he said.
It was a similar story for the vendors of a five-bedroom home in Box Hill North, which sold on Saturday for $2.21 million.
The home at 31 Severn Street had a bidder from Sydney and one based in China competing with six other bidders for the property.
Some were looking to knock down and rebuild on the block, while others wanted to make the existing home their own.
“The people who bought the home saw it for the first time on the auction day,” Buxton Box Hill’s Calvin Chan said.
They are planning to keep the existing house, he said.
Families were also fighting it out for a three-bedroom home in West Footscray which sold for $110,000 above reserve – for $990,000.
There were 23 registered bidders with young couples also part of the mix.
Barry Plant Sunshine director and auctioneer Jason Allen said a shortage of stock in the Footscray West area meant homes like 5 Fontein Street were hot property for buyers.
“The opening bid was $880,000, which was right on the reserve, so after the first bid it was on the market,” he said.
The ecstatic vendors were planning to retire and would be looking to move into another investment property they had, Mr Allen said.
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