Sold: Peter Overton and Jessica Rowe score $8.175m for Vaucluse house

Television presenters Peter Overton and Jessica Rowe became the latest Sydneysiders to cash in on the property boom on Tuesday night when they sold their Vaucluse home under the virtual hammer for $8.175 million.

The bullish result was about $500,000 more than the reserve, and more than $1 million above the $7 million guide it was listed for just two weeks ago.

Ray White Double Bay’s selling agent and auctioneer James Keenan told buyers at the opening of the online auction that an offer of “7 million to $8 million would be a good start”, and so it was, prompting an opening bid of $7.5 million. Within a handful of bids the property was declared on the market at $7.61 million.

It was the same buyer who opened the auction who 16 bids later secured the house at $8.175 million.

The sale ends 12 years of ownership by the high-profile couple, who purchased it in 2009 for $3.37 million when they were upgrading from their matrimonial home in Rose Bay.

Overton, who was no where to be seen on Nine’s flagship 6pm news bulletin on Tuesday night, told Domain recently they had been looking to trade up to a larger family home in Vaucluse in recent years with more space for their daughters, Allegra, 14, and Giselle, 12. “It’s time for a change for that next stage of our family life,” he said.

The couple married in 2004, the year after they bought their first joint home in Rose Bay for $2.315 million when Overton was at 60 Minutes and Rowe was presenting Ten News at Five with Ron Wilson.

Mr Keenan sold the property with his Ray White principal Elliott Placks, who said the Double Bay agency has recorded a 90 per cent clearance rate of its online auctions in recent weeks.