Families battle at hot home auction to get in one of city’s best school catchments
Local and migrating families all took their shot at a house that’s only a short walk from one of the city’s top ten schools.
A family has managed to win a house in one of Brisbane’s most sought-after school catchments, after a fight between four active bidders on Saturday morning.
The four-bedroom, four-bathroom home at 30 Berkshire Cres, Wishart, has been unchanged since it was built in 2000, and was being sold by its original owner.
Agent Henry Wong with the Henry Wong Team at RE/MAX said the auction attracted seven registered bidders, representing a changing generation of homeowners.
“It’s the changing of the guard,” he said. “You have the downsizers that are selling, it’s the younger families that are buying.”
Bidding began at $1m, with the pace of the bidding war quickly skyrocketing as offers were sent back and forth.
“It was very fast-paced,” Mr Wong said. “Once we actually cracked the $1.4m mark it got really slow, and then it started to pick up again.”
Offers quickly rose above the reserve price, as well as the suburb median of $1,420,600.
Three bidders were still participating when the home went on the market at $1.4 million, but it went down to two buyers after $1.5m.
Finally, after 29 bids, the winner claimed the home for an offer of $1.526m.
Wishart is located in the Mansfield State High School catchment, one of Brisbane’s top ten public secondary schools.
With homes in the area also being close to Wishart State School and the private school Citipointe Christian College, Mr Wong said the suburb was in high demand.
“The catchment wars are still on,” he said. “When you can walk to Wishart State School and Mansfield State High, there are [a lot] more buyers.”
Mr Wong said the sellers were “over the moon” at the final sale price, congratulating each other at the end of the auction.
Meanwhile, the buyers – a young couple moving from China – were happy to move into the same suburb as a family member, who’d recently migrated to Brisbane.
“Usually when people come from different parts of the world, they come in groups and they want to live close together,” Mr Wong said.
He added the family had moved to Wishart to help get their children in the popular school catchments, and appreciated how close the nearby schools were from their home.
“Who wants to spend their time in traffic?” he said. “That’s a big factor when it comes to families with children … they live busy lives as it is.”
Originally published as Families battle at hot home auction to get in one of city’s best school catchments