Wooloowin home sells for $1 million minutes after being passed in

The low set brick home at 45 Isedale Street in Wooloowin was an eye-catcher. It stood out from the Queenslanders and workers’ cottages more typical of the area.

With four bidders having set their sights on it, the auction got off to a cracking start. The first bid was $700,000, but the second knocked the price up a whopping $150,000 to $850,000.

The bidding eventually stalled at $925,000, after which auctioneer Phil Parker struggled to coax anything from the buyers. He placed a vendor bid of $950,000, then another at $1 million, before he passed the home in. 

Normally he’d be loathe to let an auction go without selling; but this time a buyer was waiting in the wings, pen in hand.

“We had interest outside of auction on a conditional basis,” Mr Parker said shortly after the auction. “As we speak, we are going to contract at $1 million.”

“If it passes in, you can’t get a better outcome than this, to sell it right after.”

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The five-bedroom property was a renovated 1950s home, which had been updated by the vendors. “The owner is an architect, a lot of time and effort has gone into it,” said Ray White Ascot‘s Nick Kouparitsas.

“It is quite a different construction,” he said. “It’s got some different features, it’s a bit of an L-shaped design and for a brick property, it’s got really high ceilings.”

He said while he hadn’t been overwhelmed with interest in the property, all of the buyers present at the auction had been serious about securing the home.

Mr Kouparitsas said the vendors were selling to be closer to their family.

Later Saturday morning in Windsor, a restored 1920s worker’s cottage went to auction to a huge crowd of bidders and neighbours.

With at least a dozen registered bidders, competition was fierce. Wilston McGrath‘s Craig Lea said the campaign was stellar.

“We’ve not really had many concerns about it during the process,” he said.

“It’s been what we expected and a little bit more.”  

Upgrading homeowners made up the majority of interested parties.

“Our primary market is owner occupiers,” Mr Lea said. “They’re upgrading from smaller properties like townhouses.”

Again, bidding started at $700,000 but the buyers were much more active, ratcheting up the prices at smaller increments, eventually to $871,000. The home sold to a young couple.

Auctioneer Charlie Higgins was pleased with the result.

“It was a unique product, it was well marketed and the bidders were in healthy competition,” he said. “I think the reason we had such good bidding was because it was ready to go.”

“It’s not an overpriced market just yet in this particular pocket, either.”

Meanwhile in Yeronga, a huge riverfront property sold at auction for an eye-watering $2.5 million to an executive couple from Melbourne.

Space Paddington‘s Judi O’Dea said the auction for 71 Ormadale Road couldn’t have gone better.

“We had four bidders and two of them went for it,” she said. “Just went for it!”

Ms O’Dea said the vendors were “absolutely overjoyed” with the sale.