Melbourne online auctions: Box Hill North home sells for $1.557m despite no-one being able to inspect it

A four-bedroom home in Box Hill North sold for a whopping $1.557 million at a virtual auction on Saturday to an overseas-based investor who had not seen the property in person.

None of the 25 bidders who registered for the online auction had inspected the property personally after in-person inspections, and on-site auctions were banned as part of the COVID-19 lockdown. 

It was one of 505 auctions scheduled in Melbourne on Saturday, although many vendors withdrew their homes from auction as the lockdown was extended.

By evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary clearance rate of 64.5 per cent from 200 reported results, while 65 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.

The ban was instituted just before the property at 50 Mersey Street was advertised for sale, Buxton Box Hill director Jim Chen said.

Despite this, the home sold for $257,000 above the top of the advertised price guide of between $1.2 million and $1.3 million, with five active bidders fighting it out for the keys.

Bidding on the property started at $1.1 million, with a succession of $10,000 and $20,000 bids seeing the property sold within 30 minutes.

The buyer was an expatriate based overseas, who plans to rent out the property until they could move back to Australia, Mr Chen said. 

SOLD - $1,557,000

50 Mersey Street, Box Hill North VIC 3129

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The market in the city’s east was running hot, he said, as fewer auctions were being held during lockdown.

Many vendors had decided to shift their sales under the hammer to the start of October, when restrictions on inspections are expected to be lifted, after a state government announcement last week.

“What surprised us was that there were so many people interested in bidding on the property without seeing it first,” Mr Chen said. “Because everything has really been pushed back, there are not many properties available to bid on or buy.”

The sale in Box Hill North was one of two very similar sales for Buxton, with another four-bedroom home at 6 Gibson Street, Box Hill South also selling online for $1,559,000.

SOLD - $1,559,000

6 Gibson Street, Box Hill South VIC 3128

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The home sold for $209,000 above the top end of the price range of $1.25 million to $1.35 million, with an unusually high 42 bidders registering for the auction.

Bidding opened at $1.1 million, with a succession of quick $10,000 and $20,000 bids knocking out other active bidders leaving three to fight it out for the keys.

A family looking to buy close to local schools won the day and plans to move in over the coming months.

One of the biggest results from Saturday was the sale of a four-bedroom home in Mount Waverley, south-east of the CBD.

The four-bedroom house at 32 Wave Street sold for $1,631,000 – well above the $1.45 million reserve – to a family wanting to move in.

Ray White Mount Waverley selling agent Eric Liu said 16 bidders registered for the auction, with five of them actively bidding despite most not being able to see through the property before Melbourne went into lockdown.

“Around 80 per cent of the bidders hadn’t seen through the property, but they were able to have a building inspection done to do their due diligence,” Mr Liu said.

The vendors, who had owned the house for about eight years, had moved to Sydney for work and were watching from lockdown in NSW, he said.

In Melbourne’s north, a three-bedroom home at 3 Pinewood Drive, Thomastown sold under the hammer for $697,000, within its price guide of $649,000 to $713,900.

Five registered bidders competed at the online auction, and a young couple won.

Harcourts Rata & Co selling agent Mario Tucci said the vendors had owned the home for 31 years. They had lived at the property but had been using it as an investment in recent years.

SOLD - $697,000

3 Pinewood Drive, Thomastown VIC 3074

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“He was going to rent it out again after the last tenant moved out but decided because the market is pretty good, he would sell,” Mr Tucci said.

Bidding on the property opened at $600,000, with bids coming in quickly to see the home sell within 10 minutes.

Mr Tucci said while some people were waiting for the market to reopen, others were keen to either sell or buy in the lockdown.

“Some people just can’t wait because their pre-approval for a loan is going to run out, and some people have sold and need to purchase,” he said.