By Kate Burke
A rundown Surry Hills cottage sold for $1,351,000 at auction on Saturday, with 19 buyers turning out to compete for the home despite the cooling property market and soaring building costs.
A large crowd gathered for the auction of 106 Cooper Street, a two-bedroom home with an overgrown backyard, marketed as a “renovator’s delight”.
Auctioneer James Hurley had 19 registered bidders at the auction of 106 Cooper Street.Credit: Peter Rae
It was one of 582 Sydney properties scheduled for auction on Saturday. By evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary clearance rate of 53.6 per cent from 379 reported results, while 112 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.
Most of the bidders for the 182-square-metre Surry Hills block didn’t even manage to get a word in. Auctioneer James Hurley, from Under the Hammer, had an opening offer of $1.03 million within a few seconds, then two other bidders quickly pushed the price to $1.1 million and $1.2 million.
Bidding then climbed in $30,000 and $20,000 jumps to $1.3 million, before slowing to smaller increases, as six bidders made offers.
It was the final bidder, an inner west real estate agent, who walked away with the keys, after making just two $1000 bid increases. The result was $151,000 above the reserve.
The two-bedroom home was marketed as a “renovator’s delight”.Credit: Ray White
Buyer Martin Muscat said he paid slightly more than he wanted to, but felt the home was worth it. While his builder father had previously inspected the property, he inspected it for the first time on auction day.
“It’s exactly what I was looking for; something with a lot of character, a great location, not far from the station, not far from Surry Hills main village,” he said.
“You can never go wrong with inner-city areas ... the market might be down at the moment but it won’t be like that forever.”
Happy buyer Martin Muscat (right) with his father John Muscat. Credit: Peter Rae
An experienced renovator of apartments, Muscat said he had factored in higher building costs when deciding what he was prepared to spend on the home. He plans to make some improvements and rent it out in the interim, before tackling a larger renovation.
“We’d like to turn it into a four-bedroom contemporary residence, and would definitely like to keep the facade ... we’ve added a couple of hundred thousand dollars onto what we initially thought it was going to cost and let’s hope it doesn’t exceed that.”
Selling agent Gerardo Ricco, of Ray White Hurstville, was surprised at the strong turnout given the cooling market and rapidly rising building costs. He had been expecting about 10 bidders.
“The owners would have taken a little less [than the reserve] if they had to because of the way the market is, but we didn’t have to, it just took off,” he said.
A rear shot of the 182-square-metre block.Credit: Peter Rae
“There is still enthusiasm out there, people are still looking at properties like this to develop and make a little bit of money, ” he said.
In North Ryde, two bidders competed for an original-condition three-bedroom house at 317 Pittwater Road, which sold for $1.63 million – $5000 above the reserve.
Bidding on the deceased estate opened at $1.45 million and climbed in $20,000, $10,000 and $5000 increments, as a lower north shore family and a couple from Mascot, the eventual buyers, went head-to-head for the 556-square-metre block. The couple plan to rebuild on the site.
Selling agent Medwin Zahrabi, of The Agency North West, said it was a great result, considering the location and current market.
Auctioneer Michael Garofolo, of Cooley Auctions, said buyers were typically making smaller bid increases at auctions now, due to fear of overpaying.
“Even in a raging market buyers are scared of paying too much but you can be a bit more confident when prices are going up in your favour ... when buying an asset that a lot of people think will go down in the short term, they’re trying to mitigate their losses, which is why we see more penny-pinching bids of $1000, $5000.”
In Mosman, just one of three registered bidders made an offer on a four-bedroom house at 19 Wolger Road, which sold for the $4.2 million reserve.
The buyers, local downsizers, made an offer of $3.8 million, below the $4 million price guide. When the two other parties remained silent, it was made clear that the home would not sell at that level and negotiations began on the auction floor.
Selling agent Anthony O’Gorman, of O’Gorman & Partners, said they eventually increased their offer to $4.2 million in a bid to secure it on the auction floor.
“There were two other registered bidders and another couple of parties who would have liked to buy outside of auction conditions,” O’Gorman said. “[The buyers] understood the value and ... had been looking for something like that for over 12 months.”
Records show the home last traded for $1.68 million in 2002.
In Alexandria, a two-bedroom apartment with a private garden was passed in on a vendor bid of $1.1 million, which was also the advertised price guide.
Two buyers registered to bid on the rare 249-square-metre property at 3/55 Ralph Street, but neither made an offer.
If the home did not sell in the coming days, the owner may look to hold on to it and rent it out for a couple of years, said selling agent Brad Gillespie, of The Agency Eastern Suburbs.
Records show the apartment last traded for $1.01 million in 2015.