Melbourne prestige buyers stepping out with cash to splash at public auctions

Prestige buyers tend to be discreet, but upcoming $5 million-plus public auctions will call for big money to be splashed on the street.

A low volume of listings this year, with buyers starved of options, has tempted upmarket vendors to put their mansions to competitive bidding.

Public auctions in the most expensive strata of the market are still rare, but the scarcity of top notch homes is encouraging owners to roll the dice.

No. 52 Elizabeth Street in Malvern, which carries $6 million-plus price expectations, will go to auction on Saturday as the early spring market cranks up.

In neighbouring Armadale, 124 Kooyong Road, which is likely to fetch more than $5.5 million, and 19 Moorhouse Street, which has a price tag above $6 million, will be auctioned next month.

Tootle up Toorak Road to South Yarra, and 55 Cromwell Road, with a $5.5 million-plus price guide, is also penciled in for a September auction.

There is a precedent for high-end success under the hammer, with the depth of competition — boasting equally as deep pockets — pushing prices to new benchmarks.

In Toorak in March, seven bidders drove 26 Sargood Street to a sale price of $5 million and a suburb per square metre record of $8700.

Agent Ross Savas of Kay & Burton handled the sale, which had all the trappings of a trophy home; a triple-A address, an indoor pool and Paul Bangay landscaped gardens.

In September last year, a historic manor in Camberwell set a suburb record when it sold for $7.7 million at auction.

Six contenders fought for the keys to 27-29 Kintore Street; so aggressive was the bidding, the price jumped $1 million in one minute.

Last August, a humble brick home at 17 Marriott Parade in Glen Waverley set a Monash area record when it sold for $6 million at auction.

The vendor flipped the property after two months, for which they had paid $4.71 million, representing a gain of more than $20,000 a day over eight weeks.

A fortnight ago, 15 Barry Street in Kew — a Victorian mansion in the coveted Studley Park precinct — drew $6.5 million at auction.

Marshall White agent James McCormack, who is handling the campaign for the swish Victorian on Malvern’s Elizabeth Street, said the vendors had been disenchanted with the expressions of interest method in the past.

He said more than 250 prospective buyers had inspected the property over three weeks.

It has had a glamorous restoration and extension by architects Robson Rak and landscape designer Dave Franklin, who is behind the courtyards and terraces created for Channel Nine reality program The Block.

“An auction provides a deadline by which buyers need to definitely make a decision,” Mr McCormack said. “It is a very rare offering out there in the market place, and given there has also been a shortage of homes on the market this year, we thought there should be enough buying interest to induce competition.”

Mr McCormack said the Malvern market was tightly held.

“It is fairly much in the inner-city, it is lynch-pinned by being around Toorak, Kooyong, Malvern East and Armadale, which are beautiful suburbs which have wonderful homes that underpin the value, and it is in the private school belt, which is probably one of the main attractions for some of the families in the area,” he said.

“In this instance, we have seen a lot of people come into the market who have not been in the market. There is passive interest for a home like this, where people will only come into the market for this home, and if they miss it, they are back out of the market again.”

Kay & Burton’s Michael Gibson said prestige buyers are comfortable bidding large numbers at auction.

“Anything up to $7 million or $8 million is not an issue,” Mr Gibson said.

But he said properties in the realm of $8 million to $9 million, and above, require a more low-key method of sale. Among Mr Gibson’s ultra prestige properties, being sold by a more discreet strategy, is 53-55 Hopetoun Road in Toorak, which is attracting interest of more than $17 million.

“Supply in the market guarantees vendors a great result — there is such a shortage,” he said.

“If you have a house of $5 million, let the market drive the price, because it could go well beyond. The weekend of the 1st of October, you’ll see good supply coming back into the market.”