'Remarkable' Kew fixer-upper sells for $725,000 above reserve in huge Melbourne auction weekend

A home in Melbourne’s inner east, in need of some serious TLC, sold for massive $725,000 above the reserve at auction, as the vendors listened over the phone from Greece.

The three-bedroom home, at 209 Brougham Street, Kew, on a 892-square-metre block, sold for $2,925,000 to a developer, who is now considering what to do with it.

Langwell Harper Kew general manager Arthur Korf said the result was remarkable given it was based on land value, rather than that of the home.

“The house was not liveable and of no possible rental value,” Mr Korf told Domain.

The buyer was one of 10 bidders at the auction, with most looking to either knockdown and rebuild, or renovate the existing home which was being sold as part of a deceased estate.

“He’s unsure what he’s going to do at the moment — whether he builds a single home or more than one on the site,” he said.

The sale was one of the biggest at the weekend in Melbourne where the preliminary clearance rate reached 73.7 per cent. That was after 905 auctions were scheduled and 650 results were reported. 

There were 48 properties withdrawn from auction which were counted as not being sold as part of the clearance rate.

In Essendon, north-west of the CBD, a four-bedroom home in its original art deco condition sold under the hammer for $1.29 million.

The home at 4 Leila Street had been owned by the same family since the 1940s, and had not been renovated since being built.

SOLD - $1,290,000

4 Leila Street, Essendon VIC 3040

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Nelson Alexander auctioneer David Vaughan said the home, which was also being sold as part of a deceased estate, had drawn a lot of interest from potential buyers, including those who simply wanted to take pictures of its interior.

It was one of a few “one-owner” homes up for sale across the city.

Another, at 99 Deakin Street, Essendon, also sold under the hammer for $1.45 million. In both cases, families snapped up the homes, looking to hold onto them for some time.

SOLD - $1,450,000

99 Deakin Street, Essendon VIC 3040

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“It really is the end of an era at the moment,” Mr Vaughan said. “The population is ageing and we’re seeing a lot of this type of activity at the moment.

“Both vendors were absolutely rapt that the homes had been purchased by families who were planning to keep the existing dwellings because of their sentimental attachment to the homes,” he said.

South-east of the city in Glen Waverley, a home that had been in the same family since 1945 sold under the hammer for $2,741,000 — $541,000 above the price guide.

Harcourts Judd White selling agent Andrew Dimashki said the three-bedroom home at 19 Lisbon Street attracted 14 potential buyers, though most were knocked out with an opening bid of $2.2 million. 

Mr Dimashki said two families were left to battle it out — with one of them making the winning bid.

SOLD - $2,741,000

19 Lisbon Street, Glen Waverley VIC 3150

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“The buyers were an overseas family who have been in Australia for 18 months and have been caught here because of coronavirus,” Mr Dimashki said. “They’ve been living with friends and have been waiting for the right property to come along.”

Closer to the city, in Albert Park, a more modern, multi-storey house sold under the hammer for $3.57 million to a local couple.

The three-bedroom home at 8 Draper Street was one of two that had been recently built by the same developer, Greg Hocking Holdsworth director and auctioneer Simon Gowling said.

SOLD - $3,570,000

8 Draper Street, Albert Park VIC 3206

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The property had a two-car garage and a pool and was built on about 155 square metres of land.

“It was sold for $23,000 per square metre, which is just huge,” Mr Gowling said.

One of the most surprising sales for the weekend was In Melbourne’s east, where a man who had stopped to use the facilities at a home open before an auction, became the buyer.

“He just stopped the car to use the bathroom,” Marshall White Balwyn’s Perry Zhou said. “He didn’t know the house was going to auction.

SOLD - $2,450,000

503 Belmore Road, Mont Albert North VIC 3129

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The four-bedroom home at 503 Belmore Road, Mont Albert North, sold for $2.45 million after it initially passed in with a bid of $2.41 million.

The new owner, who Mr Zhou described as an “affluent investor” simply bought the home because he liked it, he said.