Daily Telegraph Real Estate auction blog: live updates from the property market
The tide is beginning to turn in Sydney’s once booming property market, but there were still some big sales thanks to a mix of buyers who made some puzzling choices at auction.
Auctioneer Jake Moore at the auction for a house in Little Bay. Picture: David Swift
Welcome to The Daily Telegraph’s auction coverage.
It was the third consecutive Saturday with more than 1000 homes going under the hammer and the increased volume of auctions helped cool what was previously a runaway market.
Agents, once supremely confident of delivering big results for their sellers, have been reining in their expectations.
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Many warned only “A-grade properties” were fetching the huge prices that were, only a few months ago, the standard for just about every property sale.
“It’s gone from a nuts market to a normal market,” said The Agency’s Catherine Murphy, adding that the usual rules of gravity in the market were returning.
This meant properties with major drawbacks such as a location on a busy road were becoming a harder sell.
Auctioneer Jake Moore of Cooley Auctions said there was a noticeable shift in the atmosphere at auctions and buyers were no longer scrambling to get into the market.
Part of the reason was the greater choice of available housing, Mr Moore said. The exception was the upper end of the market, which was continuing to fly, he said.
“There is still a lot of money going around for properties priced above $4 million,” he said.
CoreLogic data showed auction clearance rates were declining over recent weeks. Last week the clearance rate slumped to 74 per cent, a reasonably high rate by historical standards, but well below the 90 per cent rate recorded earlier this year.
We’ll keep track of some of the big results with our rolling coverage below.
An uninhabitable house opposite a KFC in the St George region has sold for just under $1.8 million – nearly $500,000 above the reserve.
The house on Cronulla St in Carlton was reported to have been neglected for years and visitors needed to walk across a plank of wood to get across the front room.
A report by the Valuer General issued a few months ago estimated the value of the property was $1.15 million, according to selling agent Michael Stojanovic of St George Property Agents.
90 Cronulla St, Carlton.
Mr Stojanovic said the $1,795,000 sale price represented “land value” as the house was beyond repair.
“Some buyers tried to order a building inspection, but the (inspectors) didn’t want to take their money … you’d have to knock it down and start again,” he said.
The buyers were a family from Ashfield who will build a modern house. They beat 17 other registered bidders.
The agent said the buyers would have to stay at the property for many years to get value out of it. The price of the block, coupled with the likely building costs, was well above what modern houses sold for in the area, he said.
A vacant Strathfield house that was broken into twice during the sales campaign has sold under the hammer for $3.8 million.
Selling agent Norman So of Belle Property-Strathfield was instructed by the sellers to set the reserve at $3.3 million.
93 The Boulevarde, Strathfield, NSW real estate.
Mr So said the long grass and lack of general maintenance around the property made it obvious it was uninhabited and vagrants had slept in the property on occasion after forcing their way in.
There were five “strong” buying parties interested in the property: a mix of owner occupiers who wanted to renovate the property and others with more ambitious plans for the 810sqm block, Mr So said.
The buyers, who beat out nine other registered bidders, will knock the home down and replace it with a modern house.
A one-bedroom cottage squeezed between two double-storey houses has passed in at auction after failing to attract a single bid.
The Torrens title house on Phillip St in the inner west suburb of Birchgrove went under the hammer with a $1.4 million price guide.
87 Phillip Street, Birchgrove.
Listing agent Jon Snead of The Agency said he hadn’t expected the home to pass in. “A Torrens title home in Birchgrove, you’d expect it go crazy, but such is the market,” he said.
A designer home in Kingsford described as one of the best in the suburb has sold for about $1.2 million above the lofty price expectations in a sale that puzzled even the agents.
The house on Botany St was expected to sell for about $3.3 million and the agents told The Sunday Telegraph before the auction that $3.5 million would have been an “excellent” price.
A reserve was set at $3.3 million but the property sold under the hammer for $4.55 million in front of a crowd of about 60 onlookers.
The crowd at the auction for the Botany Rd house in Kingsford. Picture: Sam Ruttyn
Ray White-Park Coast auctioneer Adrian Bo said it was an attractive offering for buyers, but he couldn’t pin exactly why it sold for so much higher than expected.
“It was a freestanding house with a pool on about 600sqm and there are not a lot of them in the eastern suburbs so they will always do well,” he said.
Many of the bidders at the auction were families from nearby Coogee and Randwick, who were looking to move to Kingsford after being priced out of those markets, Mr Bo said.
Selling agent Sam Capra said he knew the home would attract a lot of bidders but never expected it to sell for anywhere near the mark it did.
More homes across Randwick, Paddington and other suburbs have passed in, with agents reporting high seller expectations were a significant factor in the lack of sales.
No data has been made available yet on the difference between seller expectations and sale prices, but some agents reported many of their sellers wanted a price well above comparable sales.
These vendors had typically watched neighbouring properties sell for increasing amounts over recent months and expected the pattern to continue, setting reserves well above prices for similar properties.
To be fair, many of the homeowners who sold earlier this year were also pricing their homes well above the market. The difference was they still managed, remarkably, to sell above those lofty marks because the market was booming.
But it’s not all bad news for sellers. It appears most properties that are passing in at auction are still selling through post auction negotiations.
It’s likely the prices wouldn’t be the same as what the owners originally expected, but they’ve clearly been high enough for the sellers to agree to handing over the keys.
A West Ryde house has sold under the hammer for $2.52 million – but it appeared to happen only after the sellers revised their reserve midway through the auction.
It took a long time for the auction to get underway for the three-bedroom house on Falconer St, with auctioneer Michael Garofolo rejecting a series of low bids, including a $2.3 million offer.
Bidding eventually opened at $2.4 million, which Mr Garofolo described during the auction as “cheap and cheerful”.
17 Falconer Street, West Ryde.
Five more bids came in until the auction was paused at $2.52 million as the agents awaited instructions from the vendor. Mr Garofolo was heard commenting: "I don't know why (the bidders) are holding back."
It was then indicated that the property was “on the market” and it sold for $2.52 million.
Sellers dropping their reserves in the middle of auctions was a common feature of many of the properties sold last week.
An unusual ‘Nissen Hut’ in the Newcastle area has sold for a record $700,000.
The huts were originally designed for the military, but were later used as cheap, pre-fabricated housing.
There were 50 constructed in the suburb of Belmont North for post-war British migrant families, but the one sold for $700,000 was one of the last of the huts still left. It's the highest price ever paid for a structure of its kind in the suburb.
A one-bedroom unit in Potts Point has sold for nearly $2.3 million and about $800,000 higher than what the sellers paid in 2017.
Richardson & Wrench Elizabeth Bay/Potts Point agents Angelo Bouras and Joss Reid had been guiding $2 million for the unit in The Rex at 50 Macleay St, but could not confirm the exact price due to confidentiality agreements. You can read the full story here
Right location helps dated Putney house sell for $4.55m
Old wisdom claims real estate is all about location, location, location – a huge sale in Putney has become a reminder of why.
The dated four-bedroom house on a block across the road from the water sold for $4.55 million.
163 Princes St, Putney sold for $4.55m.
Selling agent Michael Montano of Raine and Horne-Montano had the house on Princes St listed as “bursting with promise” and an opportunity for a knockdown-rebuild project.
Most of the original houses on the popular waterfront strip in Putney were bulldozed and replaced with much larger modern housing.
The PM could make around half a million dollars after selling his investment property this Saturday and benefiting from the contentious capital gains tax discount. See the video.
One of the Gold Coast’s oldest motels, the largest of its kind, is set to undergo a dramatic change which would mean something quite different, if realised.
