Bid at packed Sydney auction stuns buyers

Buyers were left stunned at a packed Sydney auction when they heard the first bid for the four-bedroom home in the city’s Inner West.

The opening bid at this Sydney home was a staggering $400,000 above the price guide. Picture: Tiktok

EXCLUSIVE

Buyers were left stunned by frantic scenes at a Sydney auction this weekend, when the opening bid on a four-bedroom home in St Peters was a staggering $400,000 higher than the price guide.

The housing market in the capital cities is supposedly cooling but the initial guide for 2 Crown Street, which went to auction on Saturday, was a whopping $1 million short.

NSW buyer’s agent Penny Vandenhurk, who was bidding on the behalf of a client, placed the first sky-high bid on what she described as a “unique and versatile” home.

Ms Vandenhurk told news.com.au that an extraordinary 90 per cent of properties are selling for higher than the price guide in recent weeks — but she explained why, in this instance, the guide was so dramatically off.

The four-storey property with a rooftop terrace, opposite Sydney Park, went to market with a price guide of $1.9 million, after the median house price in St Peters fell by 7 per cent in the last year.

Still, the home got strong interest. Its guide was quickly revised up to $2.1 million, according to realestate.com.au, who dubbed it the “industrial treehouse”.

More than two dozen unregistered bidders showed at the auction, with footage taken outside the property showing a crowd that sprawled off the pavement and into the road.

The home was dubbed an ‘industrial treehouse’. Picture: realestate.com.au

Ms Vandenhurk said it was “obvious to her” that the property was “definitely not selling under $2.5 million”. So, she opened with a bid at that price, to audible shock from the crowd.

“My strategy was to ensure the auction had as little momentum as possible, and as few active bidders as possible. This was to give my clients the best possible chance of owning it,” she said.

“I knew the maximum we would bid to before the auction. You should never decide during an auction what you are prepared to pay.”

Another bidder came in at $2.55 million, and a bidding war ensued as more than 40 bystanders watched on. Ms Vandenhurk maxed out at $2.65 million at the request of her client.

Unfortunately for the second bidder, another person joined the fight — “a young couple with help from the bank of mum”, Ms Vandenhurk said.

The bank of mum ultimately won out, and the young couple purchased the 132-square-metre block for a staggering $2.88 million — some $1 million higher than where the price guide started, and almost double the average house price in St Peters at $1.5 million.

Dozens of people watched the frantic auction. Picture: TikTok

Penny Vandenhurk, who placed the first bid. Picture: Purchase With Penny

In fact, the staggering price was just $20,000 short of the suburb record.

A four-bedroom home at 59 Mary Street, St Peters — which sits on a block five times the size of that at 2 Crown Street — sold for $2.9 million during the era of record-breaking prices in November 2021.

Ms Vandenhurk said the Mary Street house was “nothing special” but was sold for redevelopment.

“It is difficult to compare a massive development site to a small architecturally designed home,” she said.

It is illegal in NSW for an agent to underquote a property deliberately, a law that was brought in to make sure buyers don’t get their hopes up or waste their time.

“In fairness, for unique homes in a market with very little stock, it’s very hard to put a finger on for where the price may land,” Ms Vandenhurk said, adding that the market was “starting to shift in the last four weeks” after a slow end to 2022.

She said Damien Cooley, who ran the auction, was a “great auctioneer” who could “build momentum, and extract every last dollar out of someone — or their mum.”

The property came close to breaking the suburb record. Picture: realestate.com.au

Ms Vandenhurk said buyers had come into the new year with renewed confidence, meaning about 90 per cent of properties in the area where she works — Sydney’s east and inner west — were selling for above the price guide.

“The average amount above the guide at the moment is still about 10 per cent [of the listed price], but there are signs this is starting to creep up,” she told news.com.au.

“I would forecast by mid-2023 this average will be back to about 15-20 per cent, given the low stock levels on market — but it’s probably too early to call a shift in the average right now.”

Despite the trend, Ms Vandenhurk said the home at 2 Crown Street was an outlier. She apologised to hopeful buyers who had showed up in believing it may go for at least close to $2.1 million.

“Sorry if that was you, but I wasn’t there to let people throw emotional money around,” she said.

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