Sydney online auctions: First-home buyers pick up Alexandria house for $2.683m
First-home buyers secured an Alexandria house for $2.683 million after a painstakingly slow and long online auction on Saturday.
Four buyers registered to bid on the four-bedroom property at 164 Belmont Street, which had a price guide of $2.3 million.
It was one of 451 homes scheduled to go under the hammer on Saturday.
By evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary clearance rate of 81.6 per cent from 392 reported results, while 54 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.
The Alexandria auction opened bang on the guide after much hesitation, setting the tone for the remainder of the hour-long process.
Three buyers painstakingly placed bids on the home but only after plenty of cajoling from the auctioneer and long pauses in between each one.
After 56 slow bids, the home sold for $2.683 million – $83,000 above reserve – to a young Paddington couple.
The Agency Eastern Suburb’s Brad Gillespie said it was the first auction of that sort he had seen in the past 12 months.
“It was the gamesmanship that … happened to be the dynamics of those three [bidders]. It was a unique situation,” Mr Gillespie said.
“We decided to put the reserve up to that level knowing the level of interest going into it. [The pace] had nothing to do with the reserve.”
The property last traded during the previous Sydney property boom in 2017 for $2.275 million, records show.
In Freshwater, another set of first-home buyers picked up the keys to a three-bedroom unit at 6/78 Harbord Road for $1.828 million.
Eight buyers, a mix of upgraders and first-home hopefuls, registered to bid on the property, which had a price guide of $1.5 million to $1.65 million.
A low offer of $1.1 million was knocked back before the sale began at $1.5 million.
Half of the registered bidders pushed the price up in varying increments, rising past the $1.65 million guide to eventually sell for $1.828 million.
Cunninghams Real Estate’s Michelle Galletti said the successful buyers settled on the unit as their $2 million budget meant they had been priced out of houses in the area.
“Entry-level for a Freshwater house is $3 million,” Ms Galletti said, adding that the competition had been in the same predicament.
The unit last sold for $965,000 in 2016, records show, which meant it had almost doubled in price in five years.
In the inner west, another first-home buyer was the successful bidder at the auction of a three-bedroom townhouse at 6/24-26 Perry Street, Marrickville.
Fifteen buyers, a combination of upgraders, investors and first-home buyers, registered to bid on the home, which had a price guide of $1.5 million.
The auction opened at $1.485 million with six active bidders raising the price to $1,707,500 – well above its $1.5 million reserve – in just 15 minutes.
The successful purchaser was a young first-home buyer from Surry Hills, who outbid local inner-west investors.
Ercan Ersan, of Ray White Surry Hills, Alexandria, Glebe and Erskinville, said while he was not sure if the buyer had the Bank of Mum and Dad behind them, he would not be surprised.
“I don’t ask the question but nine out of 10 times they do. People get offended,” Mr Ersan said.
Critically low stock levels were still ensuring strong results two months into Sydney’s lockdown, he said.
The property last traded for $882,000 in 2013, records show, meaning the price had almost doubled in eight years.
In West Ryde, a four-bedroom house at 66 Mons Avenue sold for the first time in 57 years for $2.36 million to a local family.
The 697-square-metre block drew 13 registered bidders with the auction starting at $1.8 million – $100,000 shy of the price guide.
But it made no difference in the end after the sell-off rose for some 50 bids until the hammer eventually fell at $2.36 million.
The reserve was $2.1 million.
It was sold through Green Real Estate’s Jerry Dionisatos.
In Glenfield, a dozen buyers registered to bid on a three-bedroom townhouse at 17/73 Sovereign Circuit, guided at $599,000.
But it took just two to tango as the sell-off opened at $625,000 and went up in only seven bids until the hammer fell at $660,000.
The reserve was $650,000.
It sold through McGrath Bankstown’s George Kapos.
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