Melbourne online auctions: Nine news presenter Brett McLeod sells Fitzroy North pad for $3.29m
Nine news presenter Brett McLeod and his wife Louise sold their funky Fitzroy North pad for $3.29 million in an online auction on Saturday, as Melbourne’s property market marked its second weekend in lockdown six.
The sale price for the two-storey, converted shopfront at 97 Delbridge Street was well above the $2.95 million mark at which it was declared on the market.
It was one of 1038 auctions scheduled in Melbourne on Saturday, despite lockdown six being extended by a week.
By evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary clearance rate of 54.6 per cent from 663 reported results, while 275 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.
Bidding opened at $2.9 million via Zoom and the action was fast and furious as five of the six registered bidders fought for the keys.
It came down to two buyers bidding in $5000 increments before one dropped out. A young professional couple were the buyers.
McLeod, who has worked in radio and for the news desk at Nine, majority owner of Domain, for the past three decades, is both a Quill Award and Logie winner. He owned the property for just over 16 years.
He is now moving overseas to work in the coveted role of Nine Network Europe correspondent for a second time.
Nelson Alexander Carlton North partner and auctioneer Tom Roberts said the sale of these hip inner-city shopfront homes was rare, and would only become rarer.
“[Lockdown] has certainly made it more challenging for everyone … but hopefully we’ll be out if it soon,” an optimistic Mr Roberts said.
Under lockdown rules, in-person auctions and inspections are banned, with the market now running online.
It has not yet stopped the voracious appetite of buyers, however, with one home in the south-eastern suburb of Rowville selling to a family who had only inspected the property virtually.
After a marathon online auction, they bought the four-bedroom home at 8 Wanaka Close for $1,093,500 – well above the auction price guide of $880,000 to $968,000. The property had been called on the market at $1.05 million.
Ten parties registered to bid, and four of them were active. Bidding opened at $840,000 and a flurry of offers followed, some as low as $500.
Ray White Rowville selling agent David Armstrong said the vendors had owned the property for 10 years and were now downsizing to a home they had already purchased.
The home, in the “lakes estate” area of Rowville, was one of the most popular in the suburb, he said.
“Sales in Rowville are continuing to grow pretty strongly,” Mr Armstrong added. “It appears as we come out of lockdown it gets busier with high demand and low supply.”
In the city’s east, a fixer-upper owned by the same family since the 1920s sold for $1.98 million online after 25 registered bidders pushed the price above the $1.5 million reserve.
The two-bedroom home at 37 Hughes Street, Malvern East, was sold by the State Trustees as part of a deceased estate.
YPA St Albans director and auctioneer Gioan Pham said a family who lived locally had bought the home and were planning to tear it down and build a new house on the block.
“It was all about the location,” Mr Pham said. “It was on a nice, tree-lined street and was right behind the shops there.”
Closer to the CBD, in Collingwood, a single-fronted terrace with scope to renovate smashed its reserve by more than six figures at virtual auction.
The two-bedroom home at 317 Wellington Street sold for $991,500, well above its advertised reserve price of $880,000.
Bidding began right on the reserve and jumped in a mixture of increments from $10,000 down to as little as $500 as four parties competed. First-home buyers won the day.
Nelson Alexander’s Tom Roberts, who also sold the Fitzroy North property, said it was a very strong result despite the interrupted sales campaign.
Only two or three open for inspections could be held due to the stop-start lockdown rules, he said, which did not deter first-home hopefuls looking to make some upgrades.
“It is a home that is in a really competitive price range – that sub-$1 million mark,” he said. “Getting into the market, sub-$1 million, was the attraction for that property.”
One of the biggest sales for the weekend was in Armadale, where a home sold at online auction for $4.2 million – well above the auction guide of $3.5 million to $3.85 million.
RT Edgar Toorak director and auctioneer Anthony Grimwade would not comment on the sale price of the four-bedroom home at 25 Hume Street, but said buyers were not being put off by online auctions.
Five bidders competed and a family wanting a larger home won. Mr Grimwade said the house had been popular among buyers wanting the Armadale lifestyle.
“It’s a very nice house, north facing with a nice double garage and it offers potential for further improvements,” he said.
With Elizabeth Redman
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