Melbourne auctions: WW2 veteran’s South Melbourne home sells for $203,000 above reserve
The home of one of the last surviving Rats of Tobruk sold at auction on Saturday, netting him a payday well above his expectations.
The three-bedroom home at 29 Ferrars Place, South Melbourne was in need of major renovations, Belle Property’s David Wood said, but most buyers were willing to take it on because the terrace was well located.
“Some people felt there was too much work there … it’s not a renovation for the faint-hearted,” he said. “But it will be a fantastic home.”
It helped the vendor was 100-year-old Geoff Pullman, one of the few remaining Rats of Tobruk. The Rats were named for the siege of the Libyan city of Tobruk, where 14,000 men fought off Axis powers.
It was one of 129 auctions scheduled in Melbourne today.
By evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary clearance rate of 59.8 per cent from 87 reported results, while 13 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.
Mr Wood said Mr Pullman’s story had been popular during the auction campaign.
“They lived in caves fighting Germans and Italians and eating rations for months so that makes lockdown look pretty easy,” Mr Wood said. “It made it a nice story. People felt a warm connection with the vendor. It’s not every day you have someone who’s 100 years old living in the home.”
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South Melbourne terrace in same family for decades listed with $1.95m to $2.1m guide
The family bought the home in 1986 for about $180,000 to $190,000, Mr Pullman said previously.
Bidding opened at the bottom of the quoted price range of $1.95 million to $2.1 million. From there, it quickly passed the reserve of $2.05 million with six bidders weighing in.
The terrace sold for $2,253,000, which was $203,000 more than the reserve.
It went to a local man who will renovate it to move his growing family into in the future, Mr Wood said.
Meanwhile, in Ascot Vale, a townhouse on the Maribyrnong River sold to a man who fell in love with the block on his daily kayak through the waterway.
Nelson Alexander listing agent Jayson Watts said the buyer of 3/20 Woods Street lived nearby and had been waiting for years for something to come up in the block.
“They’re a family from Yarraville,” Mr Watts said. “He rows his kayak daily along the river and has always wanted to buy it.”
The four-bedroom terrace was listed with a quoted price range of $1.2 million to $1.3 million.
Mr Watts said the buyers were interested in the home for its flexible floorplan, as one of the bedrooms would make for a good home office.
“It’s an ideal work-from-home environment. Cracking spot and it’s the last house on the row of Wood Street that fronts on the park,” he said.
It sold for $1,285,000, just more than the reserve of $1.25 million.
Mr Watts said the area was outperforming its neighbours.
“Ascot Vale has been a standout through the whole year,” he said. “It’s a very popular suburb with a lot of families and this year there’ve been a lot of areas surrounding us that haven’t had the same interest we’ve had. We can’t list enough houses for demand to catch up.”
In Cheltenham, a two-bedroom villa sold to a first-home-buyer in another quick auction.
Bidding for 2/8 Glyn Court began below the quoted price range of $680,000 to $720,000, at $650,000.
Bidding passed the reserve of $670,000 after just two rises, Ray White listing agent and auctioneer Kevin Chokshi said.
After nearly 20 bids, the home sold for $754,500. “We had $84,500 more than the reserve and four active bidders,” Mr Chokshi said.
He said two underbidders were downsizers and was surprised they did not manage to beat the first-home buyers.
“[The first-home buyers have] been waiting a long time to buy, [their eagerness is because of] pent up demand and frustrations,” said Mr Chokshi. “I think a lot of downsizers may not have got exactly what they wanted if they sold in during lockdown so they’re conservative on the bidding front.”
Cheltenham had been popular since the inspection ban ended, he said.
“It’s super hot. We sold five last week and we’re going to sell seven this week,” Mr Chokshi said. “Everything‘s going like hotcakes. The average time to sell is about 11 days at the moment.”
In Mont Albert, another villa sold for more than its price guide.
The two-bedroom home at 6/3-5 Louise Avenue was quoted at $700,000 to $770,000 and went for $804,000 at auction.
Wakelin Property Advisory director Jarrod McCabe watched the sale and said the price was about what he thought was fair.
“It’s not too bad. It wasn’t a huge villa unit, but I think that’s about where it sits,” he said. “They didn’t pay a premium but they haven’t got a bargain at that price either.”
Mr McCabe said villas had been popular through 2020.
“Those villa units are right in that sweet spot at the moment. They’re a good entry point into the inner east market,” he said. “And downsizers like them too. They can be a little bit isolated but this one was well serviced and in a good street.
“In the middle part of the year when the market was running the villa units were doing quite well.”
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