Melbourne online auctions: Rowville home sells for $1.517 million on unusually busy grand final day
A renovated family home in outer south-eastern Rowville sold for $1.517 million at virtual auction on Saturday, a whopping $197,000 above the reserve.
Forty bidders registered for the online auction of 3 Hopkins Close, with only 12 getting the chance to make a bid on the four-bedroom home.
It was one of 202 auctions scheduled in Melbourne on AFL grand final day, traditionally a quiet auction weekend.
By evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary clearance rate of 75.9 per cent from 137 reported results, while 28 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.
The home was listed with a price guide of $1.2 million to $1.32 million.
An opening bid of $1.2 million showed buyers were serious, and the recently renovated home sold after just 15 bids.
In the end, a single $2000 bid sealed the sale to a young family who are now hoping for a short settlement.
Ray White Ferntree Gully director Ben Thomas said the sale was a huge result on an unusually busy weekend for Melbourne auctions.
“In the last 15 years I’ve never done an auction on grand final day,” he said.
AFL grand final day is normally one of the quietest weekends for Melbourne agents, but it was a different story in lockdown this year as the market began to catch up after a six-week ban on private home inspections was lifted last week.
The 7.15pm kick-off time for the Perth-based match allowed auctions and one-on-one inspections to go ahead during the day.
In Melbourne’s north-east, a local couple bought a four-bedroom fixer-upper for $1.72 million, above the $1.4 million to $1.5 million price range.
They plan to knock down the home at 43 Tracey Street, Doncaster East, and develop the 700 square metres of land it sits on, Barry Plant Manningham selling agent and Demons supporter Scott George said.
Ten bidders – eight online and two over the phone – competed for the keys, with an opening bid of $1.31 million setting the scene.
The vendors had only owned the house for a few years before deciding to sell again and were “just capitalising on the market”, Mr George said.
A two-bedroom fixer-upper – which was close to buildings damaged during the 5.9 magnitude earthquake that struck Melbourne on Wednesday, but escaped damage itself – sold for $1.025 million under the virtual hammer on Saturday, $79,000 above the top end of its asking price range.
The home at 56 Duke Street, Windsor, was just 400 metres from Betty’s Burgers & Concrete Co, which lost part of its brick exterior during the earthquake.
The vendors had already moved out and were not caught up in the drama during the week, Biggin & Scott selling agent and auctioneer Simon Dale said.
Nine bidders registered and five competed during the virtual auction, and a young couple won the keys.
With one-on-one inspections allowed in Melbourne over the past week, after seven weeks of hard lockdown, the buyers were able to see through the property on Saturday just before the auction was held, Mr Dale said.
“They will have to fix it up first and then are potentially going to have it as an investment,” he said.
In Kew, first-home buyers and downsizers competed for a two-bedroom apartment at 5/20 Mary Street which sold for $682,000 – well above the $550,000 to $600,000 price range.
Nelson Alexander Kew selling agent Helen O’Grady said five of the seven bidders were first-home buyers, while two were looking to downsize.
The buyer, a first-home owner, was very excited after making her winning bid, Ms O’Grady said.
Agents were also kept extremely busy with one-on-one inspections on Saturday.
“It’s normally very quiet but the fact we’re still working late into the afternoon means these are definitely unprecedented times,” Ms O’Grady said. “Buyers are out and about and are definitely wanting to buy.”
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