Poignant farewell to Ashfield home made sweet by sale price

Click here for the Video transcript

The Lynch family were in tears when the hammer fell on their long-held family bungalow in Ashfield on Saturday.

For them it was a final goodbye to their late parents – Stan and Winifred Lynch – who bought the three-bedroom home for £1000 more than 70 years ago. On Saturday, the four siblings sold it for $1,707,000 – $157,000 over reserve.

The heritage-listed home on 505 square metres at 5 Rectory Avenue was one of 673 Sydney properties scheduled to go under the hammer on Saturday.

By Saturday evening Domain Group had collected 498 results and put the clearance rate at 80 per cent – up on last weekend’s 78.8 per cent.

Domain Group chief economist Dr Andrew Wilson said it was clear sign that the spring boom was rolling on. He expects property prices to continue rising.

Eldest child Graham Lynch, 79, said his late mother celebrated her 104th birthday at the house in June before she died in July. Flanked by siblings, Ann, Pamela and Stephen, he recalled happy memories of the home.

“It’s an end of an era,” he said. “This was a very quiet street and we made our own kids club; we’d play with our old-fashion billy carts, three-wheeler bikes and we couldn’t get any comics during the war so we made our own.

“Mum and dad loved music. They’d play records, we had opera nights and dances in our front room. They even let us watch the black and white TV when it first came out.

“Dad was highly regarded in the pharmaceutical industry … and mum was queen of the street. Everyone used her Christmas pudding recipe.”

Graham said his mother was “very religious” and was involved with the St Vincent Catholic Church, and De Le Salle and Bethlehem Colleges.

“There were 500 people at her funeral,” he said. “People we hadn’t seen for 70 years came and gave us old pictures.”

There were five registered bidders including the new owner, Croydon builder David Anderson, whose father Mark was bidding on his behalf.

So keen was Mark that he interrupted Under the Hammer’s Matthew McBrearty with a $1.2 million bid before the auctioneer had actually asked for an opening offer.

From then, the crowd of 35 watched as bids as high as $50,000 were traded between the four active parties.

At the $1.6 million mark it became a battle between the Andersons and another couple who were frantically trying to contact their daughter on the phone. She was planning on purchasing the property with her parents but couldn’t find a car park nearby.

The property almost sold to Mr Anderson at $1,701,000 with the under bidders stalling, trying to get an answer on price from their daughter.

A frustrated Mr Anderson called out to the auctioneer, “Are you going to knock it down?’, pleading “Go, Go! Go!”.

Mr Anderson’s final $5000 bid was followed by more stalling from the underbidders. Mr McBrearty then called the home sold at $1,707,000.

New owner David Anderson said “it was the right property” for him, and said he loved the location and size.

He plans to lease it out before restoring it and possibly moving in.

“Heritage can be a problem, but it can also be handled,” he said.

The original property was popular for its period features, including ornate ceilings, picture rails and stained-glass windows.

Belle Property Drummoyne agents Antonio Ariola and Melissa Strazzeri showed 84 groups through the property during the campaign and issued 20 contracts.

“This property was popular because it is a family orientated area and everyone loved the period features,” Mr Ariola said.

“We’ve had good results recently in Ashfield. Stock levels have been slightly low to what they have been last year but results remain buoyant.”

According to Domain Group data the median house price in Ashfield has grown by 4.8 per cent over the past 12 months to $1,478,000.

Start of video transcript

Anita: Good morning Domain. It’s Anita Balalovski here and welcome to Domain’s live auction coverage brought to you by ME Bank. We’re here at a three bedroom bungalow at 5 Rectory Avenue in Ashfield in Sydney’s inner west. Our price guide is $1.475 and we have five registered bidders. Matthew McBrearty is under way proceeding so let’s check in.

Matthew: Who’d like to own this wonderful home and Melissa just indicating to me we’ve got a lovely bottle of Moët there for the opening bid to get proceedings underway. So I wanted an incentive to get the bidding started.

Melissa: Matt.

Bidder 1: $1,200,000.

Matthew: $1,200,000. We’ll give you a round of applause bidding on the ten. You get the bottle of champagne. Four is it?

Bidder 2: Yes.

Matthew: Four and welcoming you now, $1,400,000 is free and played now. It’s against you both there. At the rear $1,400,000 now. $1,520,000, 50 ma’am? At $1,520,000 in front of you said that’ll be last time. I have $1,520,000 here at his right-hand side. Ninety-one is it, $1,591,000 and 10 is at sir and $1,601,000 now. I have $1,601,000 there left-hand side. Okay, you learn to be quick. You’re not an auction man. $1,701,000 there left-hand side. I have $1,701,000 on bid. One bid at $1,707,000. First, second, third and final time. All done. Silent. Silent finished and done. Quickly. Quickly. Done. Sold to you congratulations for $1,707,000.

Anita: What an exciting auction here at 5 Rectory Avenue in Ashfield in Sydney’s inner west. This three bedroom bungalow that’s Heritage listed was sold for $1,707,000. Thank you for watching Domain’s live auction coverage brought to you by Me Bank. We’ll see you next week.