Melbourne auctions: Three bidders push Toorak townhouse to $2 million sale
A Toorak townhouse with a luxurious main bedroom featuring a bath with a view sold for $2 million under the virtual hammer on Saturday, $220,000 above the reserve.
The home, at 1B Power Avenue, had been an investment for the vendors and saw eight bidders register for a chance to buy.
It was one of 932 auctions scheduled in Melbourne on Saturday, ahead of a likely announcement on Sunday about the reopening of real estate and other industries.
By evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary clearance rate of 74.2 per cent from 709 reported results, while 105 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.
A $1,625,000 vendor bid opened proceedings with three active bidders upping the ante through bids varying between $25,000 and $10,000 and then down to $1000.
The buyer – a young family – put in a final $7000 bid to take their offer to $2 million and clinch the deal.
Marshall White Stonnington agent and auctioneer Dave Oster said the home was fun and quirky and with four bedrooms, offered a lot of accommodation for the suburb, one of Melbourne’s most expensive. It includes a gourmet kitchen, private courtyard and a main bedroom with a free-standing bath with a view, Balinese style.
While the buyers had seen through the home, the underbidder had not, with Mr Oster saying since COVID-19, many buyers were looking through homes fewer times than they had before in Melbourne.
“They’re happy to look through just once, especially since COVID,” Mr Oster said. “They’re not wasting time.”
In the university-adjacent suburb of Carlton North, a four-bedroom, single-fronted home also sold well above expectations, for $1,868,000. The reserve was set at $1.58 million.
Six bidders registered, with three getting the chance to raise their hands online to bid for 396A Station Street.
There were no vendor bids needed and the auction started with a $1.5 million offer, followed by a flurry of $10,000 and $1000 bids, which saw the price rise quickly.
A final $10,000 bid sealed the deal for the buyer, a young woman who is planning to live there.
“It was a completely unexpected result,” Nelson Alexander Carlton partner and auctioneer Mark Verrocchi said. “It’s big money for a property like that in Carlton North but it is unique and three of the four bedrooms are gigantic.”
The vendors had owned the home for more than 20 years and recently renovated, which made it attractive to other owner-occupiers, Mr Verrocchi said.
In the city’s east, a four-bedroom home at 32 Mayston Street, Hawthorn East sold under the virtual hammer for $2.59 million – above the $2.2 million to $2.4 million price guide.
The home received an opening bid of $2.3 million, with $25,000, $10,000 and $5000 bids following from three of the six registered bidders.
Anton Zhouk Real Estate’s Anton Zhouk said the buyers were a young local family looking to upsize.
The vendors, who had owned the property for 38 years, were “rapt” with the outcome, Mr Zhouk said.
Not too far from Hawthorn, in Burwood East, a home sold for $1.49 million, just above the reserve of $1.485 million, after just 15 bids.
The home, at 44 Witchwood Crescent, Burwood East included some unique features including a brightly coloured room known as the “red room”, which has been used as a reading room.
Ray White Blackburn auctioneer Allan Smith said the vendors, who had owned the four-bedroom home since the mid-1980s, had set it up to be an oasis in the city.
In a letter to buyers, the vendors said: “This house has been our family home for more than 40 years. Our intention has been to create a magical place which invokes peace and calm in our hectic world.”
Their sales pitch worked with a family moving from Southbank to find a more tranquil spot to live with more space and trees.
Mr Smith said agents were anxiously waiting for news on whether in-person auctions would be able to be held next weekend.
“We really do need the ability to have open houses and to have in-person auctions to help agents with their schedules,” he said.
In the south-east of the city, a four-bedroom fixer-upper at 87 Patty Street, Mentone sold online for $1.37 million, above the $1.3 million reserve.
The home was bought after just 19 bids by a couple now looking to extensively renovate.
Hodges Mentone selling agent Mark Pearman said the home had attracted four bidders – three of them renovators and one an investor.
Developers, he said, had not been interested in the home because of the shape of its block.
“It’s really a weatherboard-clad home and everything needs work on it and that narrowed [buyers] down to those who were not ‘faint of heart’,” Mr Pearman said.
While there were some big sales over Saturday, not all homes sold under the hammer.
A five-bedroom home at 21 Sarissa Street, Lalor, which had a price range between $870,000 and $957,000, was passed in on a bid of $1 million.
Harcourts Rata & Co selling agent Mario Tucci said the reserve had been set at $1.1 million, with negotiations seeing a bid of $1,050,000 come through, but it was not enough to get the deal done.
Mr Tucci said it would be put up for private sale with an asking price of $1.1 million.
“I would envisage it will sell in the next week or so,” he said.
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