By Tom Carey
A local family paid $3.43 million for a Bentleigh East property on Saturday, after trying to blow away their auction competition with an opening bid at the top of the range.
The buyers were represented by an advocate and made an opening bid of $2.9 million for the five-bedroom house at 40 Castlewood Street. The bottom of the quoted price range was $2.7 million.
Jellis Craig Bentleigh director and auctioneer Kosta Mesaritis said the buyers’ advocate tried to bid aggressively during the competition. “They were just always trying to jump the bidding,” he said.
One underbidder was from the local area, while a family from Caulfield was attracted to Bentleigh East because of the quality of the home. Three parties contested the auction.
Mesaritis said that the Hampton-style house was purpose-built by the vendors as their dream home. They had a change of plans and relocated to the Mornington Peninsula.
The house was built a year ago. It featured a pool entertaining area that included a separate retreat space.
The winning bidders bid aggressively through the auction. Credit: Jellis Craig
“There’s a strong demand for turnkey solution homes. Everybody’s extremely nervous in going through the building phase at the moment,” said Mesaritis.
Mesaritis declined to disclose the reserve price.
The auction was one of 1003 scheduled across Melbourne on Saturday. By Saturday evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 62.6 per cent from 720 reported results, while 91 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.
A family from Camberwell will move one postcode over after they paid $3.45 million for a four-bedroom, single-level, brick house in Canterbury.
The successful buyers of 54 Highfield Road bid against themselves to pay $3.45 million for the keys to the 966-square-metre property. They had made the highest bid at $3.4 million, but Heavyside auctioneer Steven Zervas asked for a $50,000 raise to allow the house to be sold under the hammer.
“The vendors wanted to sell the house at auction for transparency,” said Zervas. The house was sold at its reserve price.
The auction took place in the house’s backyard. Bidding opened at $3 million and two buyers competed. The only bids made were $50,000 increments. The price guide was $3.2 million to $3.5 million.
Zervas said the vendors had maintained the house’s original features.
“Anything that someone can move into straight away, they’re paying for convenience,” he said. Tim Heavyside and Sabrina Bu were the listing agents.
In Gladstone Park, the home at 3 Fiona Court sold for $1,005,000 – $185,000 more than the vendors paid for it a year ago.
Ray White listing agent and auctioneer Malek Younan said the vendors started a renovation before deciding to move closer to the city. They paid $820,000 for the four-bedroom property in June 2023.
“They’ve done very well, the husband was in tears,” said Younan.
Four buyers competed at the auction. A middle-aged couple were successful buyers after opening the bidding at $820,000. Younan said he was surprised by their strong bidding because they had not shown much interest prior to auction day.
The successful buyers beat two other couples and one family. The reserve price was set at $860,000, more than the price guide of $790,000 to $830,000.
“They probably went in hard and went bang, then other people started to jump in,” said Younan.
In Richmond, a renovated two-bedroom house at 11 Dickens Street sold under the hammer for $1,356,000.
Two first-home buyers participated in the auction. Jellis Craig Richmond listing agent Trent Stewart said both buyers had recently missed out on other properties.
Bidding opened with a vendor bid at $1.2 million. Stewart said that bidding was competitive once buyers started to raise their hands, with many bids below $10,000.
“It was really just the last person with the deeper pockets,” said Stewart.
The vendors were upsizing from the two-bedroom house because of their growing family. Stewart said they would stay in Richmond.
AMP chief economist Dr Shane Oliver said the Melbourne property market had a bounce-back after the long weekend.
He said that listings in Melbourne were up 50 per cent from June last year.
“That suggests there are more motivated sellers out there. Either the sellers are taking advantage of the fact that prices are up a little bit on a year ago, or they’re distressed and seeking to sell their property to pay down their mortgage,” he said.
“I suspect it’s probably an element of both occurring, but it looks to me distressed listings have increased.”
Oliver said the Melbourne property market was complicated.
“There’s been a massive boom in immigration that’s supported prices, but high interest rates have been working in the opposite direction. You’ve got tax changes at the state level which are dissuading investors.”