The price of serenity: Young couple pays $1.89m for home in fierce 15-minute auction

A young couple in Carina Heights proved you can put a price on serenity – $1.89 million to be exact – securing a four-bedroom house on Saturday after a fierce 15-minute auction.

Despite the underbidder opening with a $1.6 million knockout bid that floored five other buyers, the couple held their ground, paying a reserve-topping sum as the city’s auction market grinds to its end-of-year halt.

The two-level family residence, on an 860 square metre block at 27 Olivia Drive, smashed its 2019 sale price of $1.2 million, making the result a standout in a suburb where the median house price is $1.05 million.

Will Torres, of Torres Property, said the pocket had become a magnet for families priced out of nearby hotspots such as Camp Hill and Coorparoo.

“It’s a changing of the guard here,” Torres said.

“A lot of the owner-occupiers in that pocket are at that semi-retirement age and they are looking at downsizing. But for a lot of the buyers migrating unaffordable pockets, it’s still close to the city.”

27 Olivia Drive, Carina Heights.Credit: Domain

The suburb’s price point and the home’s reserve-backing location fuelled the competition, Torres said, with seven registered bidders – all young families – fronting up for the auction.

“The underbidder had put in an offer of $1.7 million prior to auction and before bidding opened I asked them if they wanted to start it at $1.5 million,” he said.

“But they decided to go with $1.6 million to blow the competition out of the water. And while it did blow out most of [the competition], unfortunately for them someone else saw that value too.”

Torres said bidding rose rapidly in largely $50,000 and $20,000 leaps until the $1.8 million mark – where it exceeded the reserve. It then paused, before the winners handed over a final $9000 to clinch the deal.

27 Olivia Drive, Carina Heights.Credit: Domain

“It’s corny, but the property really did have that serenity and think it’s why it pulled on their heartstrings,” he said.

“The vendors were blown away by the result. But they also put in so much effort to present that home beautifully and deserved to get a great price.”

While the 2024 market is drawing to a close, Torres said, buyers were still circling in the hopes of nabbing a property before Christmas.

The Carina Heights home was one of 180 scheduled auctions in Brisbane over the past week. By Saturday evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 34 per cent from 122 reported results, while 17 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance.

Ray White chief economist Nerida Conisbee said the soft clearance rate showed the city’s once pumping market was losing some of its lustre.

“We had a 45 per cent clearance rate this time last year … and we’ve seen a drop on active bidders across Brisbane recently too. In fact, we’re now at 2.9 average active bidders and we haven’t seen numbers that low since early 2023,” she said.

“That said, it’s still high compared to the rest of the country. But anecdotally, we’re hearing the market has slowed quite quickly.

“I think vendors are probably going to market with higher expectations and that’s something that will need to be adjusted.”

In Ascot, a stately five-bedroom, four-bathroom home on a 964 square metre block sold for $4.95 million under the hammer – making it the Queensland capital’s priciest result of the week.

The home at 56 Palm Avenue features a pool, gym and home office.

A local family out-muscled one other bidder in a fast-paced auction that opened at $4.25 million and quickly climbed to $4.875 million.

“From there we negotiated on the floor and the buyer increased to $4.95 million. The underbidder came close to bidding again, but they had gone over what they wanted to spend,” said selling agent Damon Warat of Ray White Ascot.

While he couldn’t disclose the written reserve, Warat said the end result was very close.

He said the vendors purchased the home 10 years ago, renovating it into a sprawling family home before deciding to downsize.

The sale capped off a stellar month for Warat, who smashed the Brisbane house price record for a renovated estate at 32 Sutherland Avenue in Ascot, which fetched $23 million.

“Family homes in our marketplace are keenly sought after and the layout and location of this home in arguably Brisbane’s best suburb led to a great result,” he said.

Over in Sandgate, a cottage at 5 Albion Street sold for $1.295 million to a Melbourne buyer who was the sole bidder. He bought it sight unseen.

Selling agent Jacqui McKeering, of Jim McKeering Real Estate, said the four-bedroom, two-bathroom home hadn’t changed hands since 1985, undergoing an extensive renovation in 2000.

“He’d only seen the home through a virtual walk-through and he had his friends look at the property for him,” she said.

“The sale price was in line with the reserve. This year in general has been a successful one for us. But it’s not as easy to find buyers now. It’s taking the full four weeks to get the right one.”

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