Renovated weatherboard home in Sydney's south sells for $1,265,000

Amid a cooling property market, it’s not uncommon for just one or two bidders to show up to an auction.

So it was dubbed an “exception to the rule” when a renovated weatherboard home in Sydney’s south was contested by five parties on Saturday. 

The auction for 37 Browallia Crescent in Loftus, 34 kilometres from the CBD, was inspected by more than 90 groups in the “strongest campaign” selling agent Jed Wood of Sanders Property Agents has seen yet.

It was one of about 700 Sydney properties scheduled to go under the hammer on Saturday. By evening, Domain had recorded a clearance rate of 66.5 per cent from 429 reported results. 

A crowd of two dozen gathered in the backyard as bidding opened at $1.15 million. It climbed by $10,000 increments for most of the auction until the race narrowed to two groups at $1,255,000. They reluctantly bid against each other by $5000 lots until it sold for $1,265,000 — $15,000 above the reserve.

The property, on approximately 677 square metres, surpassed the suburb’s median house price of $1.07 million. The property has also more than doubled in price since it last traded a decade ago for $560,000.

“I’m really pleased with the result. It’s the exception to the rule of the current market. We’re averaging two buyers per auctions so to have seven registered bidders and five active bidders is perfect conditions,” Mr Wood said.

Auctioneer Andrew Cooley, from Cooley Auctions, agreed, adding that the property performed strongly in Sydney’s cooling market conditions.

“Naturally in a stronger market you obviously have more competition and you would have more bidders,” Mr Cooley said. “And if I were to speculate it could potentially have gone further in a stronger market. But given the fact that we had really good numbers through the opens, it was really good value.” he said.

The four-bedroom, two-bathroom house sold to locals Ben and Sarah Miller who were looking to upsize from their duplex in neighbouring Bangor, as they start to grow their young family.

“It ticks all the boxes for us. We’ve got a young family, we’re ready to move in and get on with it,” said Mr Miller, a firefighter.

“We’ve been looking on and off but this just grabbed us,” said Mrs Miller, a nurse manager.

The vendors believed it was the significant, six-month long renovations to the house last year that helped generate strong interest and ultimately a good result.

“We basically took it back down to its bare bone, four stumps and rebuilt the whole thing. We changed the layout and we’ve been really happy with it,” said owner Heidi van Dort.

“People see the quality of the work and I think it’s made back what we put into it. We’ve owned the place for almost 10 years, if you include all of that then it’s been a good investment,” Mrs van Dort said.

Heidi and Darrel van Dort have upgraded to a bigger house in Gymea Bay, a neighbouring suburb, to make room for their three children.

Meanwhile in Sydney’s inner west, vendors didn’t have as much luck as a double lot property in Leichhardt failed to sell despite garnering a small crowd of 25 people.

Bidding opened for the quaint house on 50 Charles Street at $2 million, going up by $50,000 before dropping to $20,000, $10,000 and $5000 rises.

It passed in at $2,085,000, falling well short of the $2.3 million reserve.

Three of the four registered bidders, who were all builders and investors, held off on bidding because “they know the market is a bit soft and they try to negotiate for a better price afterwards,” said selling agent Santos Sulfaro of Richardson and Wrench Leichhardt.

Elsewhere in Sydney

SOLD $1.32 million 
Coogee
8/253 Carrington Road
2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1 car space

Four bidders fought it out for this 210-square-metre apartment in the beachside suburb of Coogee. The opening bid was $1.2 million and increased by $20,000 increments until it reached $1.27 million. From there, it slowed to $10,000 and $5000 lots. The successful buyer was a local resident seeking to upgrade from her current unit. She wanted a car space as she was fed up with competing for street parking in the popular suburb, according to selling agent Nick Lennan of McGrath Coogee. 

8/253 Carrington Rd, Coogee 

See more at: domain.com.au/201427154

PASSED IN $1,825,000
Annandale
162 Young Street
3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1 car space

The multi-level, renovated terrace attracted 73 inspections before auction day, with most interest coming from downsizers. Only one of the two bidders threw their hat into the ring with an opening bid of $1.75 million. It soon passed in on a vendor’s bid of $1,825,000, failing to reach the reserve of $1.83 million. Selling agent Caroline Selka of Belle Property Pyrmont said many of the interested parties “didn’t have the stretch” in their budgets. The property last sold for $1.22 million in 2013.

162 Young St, Annandale Photo: Supplied

See more at: domain.com.au/2014241560

SOLD $2,965,000 
Randwick
11 Chapel Street
3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2 car spaces

The semi-detached house drew a crowd of 80 spectators to its auction, which began with an opening bid of $2.5 million.  Bids increased by $100,000 until $2.8 million, when they reduced to $50,000, $20,000 and $10,000 rises until it fell under the hammer for $2,965,000. It sold for $115,000 above the reserve to a local buyer through Nick Simitzis of McGrath Coogee. The vendors have lived in Singapore for four years and are planning to buy a property overseas. The hose last sold in 2004 for $1,530,000.

11A Chapel St, Randwick

See more at: domain.com.au/2014231634