Melbourne auctions: Unrenovated Brunswick home sells for $2.325m as on-site auctions return
An unrenovated, double-fronted period home in Brunswick, set to go to auction two days after Melbourne was forced into lockdown on May 27, has finally sold under the hammer for $2.325 million.
Listed with a price guide of $2 million to $2.15 million, the large home at 11 Balmer Street, built in circa 1904 and on 653 square metres of land, attracted a crowd of about 45 – just below the 50-person-limit for on-street auctions.
It was one of 591 auctions scheduled across Melbourne on Saturday, less than 48 hours after the city’s latest lockdown was lifted.
By evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary clearance rate of 62.0 per cent from 234 reported results while 70 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.
Among the socially distanced crowd were three bidders keen to make the large family home their own.
Bidding started with a vendor bid of $2 million at the bottom end of the price guide, and after a slow start, two parties pushed the bidding well above the quoted range.
A third party soon joined in, placing some large bids, including a final bid of $2.325 million to secure the home for himself and his young family.
The final selling price was $950,000 more than what the vendors paid for the home in 2014 when they paid $1.375 million for the three-bedroom house, public records show.
Since then, the vendors had rented out the house as an investment property and planned to renovate and move into it eventually, but have bought another home to live in.
“They recently purchased something else, so they were keen to sell this one,” listing agent David Rubinic from Biggin & Scott Inner North said.
But he said when the lockdown was announced days out from the originally scheduled auction, they decided to postpone it by two weeks so they could hold it on-site.
“The owners weren’t keen on an online auction, and we just thought with a great property like this, it was better to do it in person, and as it turned out, we got a great result,” he said.
“To make about $1 million in less than seven years is not bad.”
In Mount Waverley, in Melbourne’s outer east, the decision to postpone the auction of a four-bedroom, three-bathroom family home – so that it could be conducted in person – paid off for another vendor when their home sold under the hammer for $205,000 above the reserve.
The two-storey, brick home at 76 Jubilee Street attracted a large crowd, with four active bidders pushing the price to $1.675 million.
The successful bidders were a young couple upsizing.
Ray White Mount Waverley managing director Courtney Matthews said Melbourne’s most recent 14-day circuit breaker to help slow the spread of COVID-19 had only fuelled the pent-up demand in buyers that existed before the latest lockdown.
“Our strategy was to hold on until this side of lockdown to get that real auction atmosphere on the street and it really paid off for our sellers,” Mr Matthews said.
“The market keeps on surprising us. Going into lockdown stopped some of the supply property coming online, so that exacerbated a situation [in which] there are already more buyers than homes.
“This was an exceptional result. I have to say it was completely unexpected. A different agency sold an identical property a week ago during the lockdown, literally a street away, for $1.4 million. It’s needless to say our seller is delighted with this outcome.”
Meanwhile, in Pascoe Vale in Melbourne’s north, a 1956 clinker brick home built and owned by the same family since 1956 sold for $1.11 million – well above the listed price guide of $800,000 to $850,000.
Auctioneer Peter Leahy, from Peter Leahy Real Estate in Coburg said it was “an emotional day for our vendors” who had raised five children in the three-bedroom home at 3 Stanley Street, which still has many of the original features, including 1950s carpet and wallpaper.
On 470 square metres and within the much sought-after school zone for Strathmore College, Mr Leahy said the property provided a great opportunity to “rebuild, renovate or extend”.
Bidding for the home opened at $800,000. But it wasn’t long before three bidders pushed the price above the $1 million mark, finally selling for $1.11 million in a hybrid auction that was held on-site and online.
In Oakleigh South, in Melbourne’s south east, the auction of a three-bedroom, two-bathroom fixer-upper or knockdown, set on a large 682 square metre block, was also conducted via an online and in-person auction, held at the offices of Ray White Oakleigh.
The property at 8 Elata Street, attracted bids from seven parties, including some who attended the auction in person and others who bid online.
Bidding for the property, which had a price guide of $1.05 million to $1.15 million, opened at $1 million and quickly soared past the reserve at the top end of the price guide.
A family who plan to renovate the home, managed to outbid several developers with a final bid of $1,320,000 – $170,000 above the reserve.
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