Throsby residential blocks sell for $48 million at auction in Canberra

The ACT government has sold more than 100 residential blocks of land at Throsby for just over $48 million.

Nearly 800 registered parties vied for the 106 single lots at a Land Development Agency auction at the National Convention Centre on Saturday.

The government also sold three multi-unit development sites and four packaged lots of single residential blocks at a builder’s auction on Friday, pocketing almost $17 million.

Colliers International general manager of land marketing Shane Radnell said Saturday’s auction was the biggest since the sale of 100 standard residential blocks in Wright in 2010, with a good mix of families, builders and investors bidding.

He said all 106 residential blocks, ranging from 315 to 1035 square metres, sold under the hammer. The largest went for $665,000.

“We had a completely full room at the first call at 9 o’clock [Saturday] morning – there were easily more than 500 people in the room,” he said. “It stayed busy throughout the day.”

Mr Radnell said the LDA had each block independently evaluated, with bidding beginning at the reserve price.

He said the strong result signalled demand for the release of another 200 blocks in the new Gungahlin suburb, scheduled for June.

“You can just tell from these numbers people see the real value of being in Throsby,” he said.

Mithun Alexander and his wife Archana were one of the lucky families, securing a block of land for $325,000.

Mr Alexander said Throsby’s location close to Horse Park Drive appealed to the Gilmore family, which included children Ananya, 5, Navin, 2 and Neil, 1.

“We’ve been looking for a while and we just wanted to build our own home,” he said. “We can design the house for the kids.”

LDA chief executive David Dawes said Saturday’s sales would help stimulate Canberra’s building industry as new houses were built in the next 18 months.

Throsby will be home to about 1100 dwelling sites once complete.