Red brick Chatswood home sells for $2.5 million - $750,000 above reserve

A man who inherited a quaint red brick house in Chatswood a little more than two months ago has won the property lottery after the deceased estate sold for $2.5 million, a whopping $750,000 above reserve.

The home last sold in 1971 for $8000 and has since been handed down to three different owners in that time. 

It was last inherited just two months ago when the previous owner of the home passed away.

Despite a weak day of auctions across Sydney, with just 58.1 per cent of homes selling under the hammer, there was a strong turnout for the three-bedroom upper north shore home.

Ten people registered to bid on the deceased estate – a number rarely seen in current conditions.

“It’s very unusual. For whatever reason it caught the fancy of heaps of buyers,” said selling agent Hugh O’Neil of Shead Property.

Bidding for the three-bedroom property opened at $1.7 million and moved in $25,000 lots, quickly surpassing the $1.75 million reserve.

The house, which sits on a 537-square-metre block, sold to a Chinese investor for $2.5 million.

Fewer than half of homes in Chatswood are selling under the hammer, with auction clearance rates in the suburb sitting at 48.9 per cent, down from last year’s 82.1 per cent.

The median house price in Chatswood is $2.51 million.

Co-selling agent Cindy Fu, of Shead Property, said it was a “rare result” for today’s market. 

“I was expecting it to go for about $2 million. I was pretty surprised. The price was amazing for that kind of house in Chatswood,” Ms Fu said.

Auctioneer Jesse Davidson believed it was the property’s location that helped attract so many buyers, and with it bids.

“Chatswood, because of foreign and Chinese investment, is a market that continues to perform really strongly,” said Mr Davidson.

“The catchment area, because of schooling, is a massive factor in house prices. It’s amazing the difference people pay for good quality schooling.” 

With the majority of bidders a mixture of Chinese-Australians and foreign buyers, Mr Davidson said the group helped drive up the price with 104 bids during the auction.

The tightly-held house was inherited in February this year after the owner passed away in October. The property was on the market for the first time in 47 years. 

Sydney’s auction clearance rates continued to decline over the weekend with a preliminary rate of 58.1 per cent, down from the previous weekend’s preliminary rate of 61.3 (which was revised down to 51.5 per cent). But there were a handful of properties that bucked the trend.

A newly-built home at 88 Park Road, Hunters Hill joined the ever-tightening sold club in a dampened market on the weekend, too.

Three out of the five registered bidders for the 658-square-metre block property threw their hat in the ring on Saturday.

Competition also helped the property sell under the hammer for $5.8 million, well above the $5.1 million reserve.

Meanwhile, in the city’s inner west a dilapidated, two-bedroom house in Marrickville sold for $1.2 million thanks to two of the five registered bidders vying for the keys. It sold $150,000 above reserve price.