By Carmen Forward and Lucy Macken
A five-bedroom designer home in Strathfield sold for $4.95 million to a buyer who only saw the property on FaceTime during a video call with a friend moments before the auction on Saturday evening.
A huge crowd stood outside 80 Mintaro Avenue, four registered and three made offers.
Bidding opened at $4.4 million, then bids ranging from $50,000 to $10,000 were quickly placed as it climbed above the $4.5 million guide and $4.7 million reserve. A final bid of $4.95 million secured the property for the FaceTime buyer who was from Oatlands but away on holiday.
Selling agent Tarun Sethi from McGrath Strathfield said most of the interest was from young, local families.
The house last traded for $3.86 million in 2019, records show. The vendor will be moving to the eastern suburbs.
The house was one of 1004 scheduled auctions in Sydney on Saturday.
By evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 68.3 per cent from 635 reported results, while 146 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.
The highest sale price on Saturday was $9.25 million for the Woollahra terrace of Madeline and Max Cunningham, chief executive of FinClear’s securities platform FCX.
The house in John Street was sold by The Agency’s Ben Collier following a redesign by Neeson Murcutt Architects in 2017. It is five metres wide with a single lock-up garage.
The Woollahra home was the top auction result on Saturday.
Collier said it sold just 10 minutes after it was passed in at $9.05 million. The reserve was not disclosed.
The house last traded in 2009 for $2.9 million.
In Neutral Bay, a young newlywed couple renting in Double Bay became first home owners on the weekend. The couple phoned, in relying on a friend to bid on their behalf.
The 60-square-metre two-bedroom unit at 4/38 Bent Street guided at $800,000 attracted four registered parties, all first home buyers, with three making offers.
Bidding opened at $790,000 and went up in $10,000, $5000 and $1000 increments.
The unit sold above the $800,000 guide and $850,000 reserve for $857,000 to the happy newlyweds. The vendor had lived there for 20 years.
The unit last traded for $397,000 in 2004, records show. It was sold through Ty McCartney-Brown from McGrath Crows Nest.
In Manly, a three-bedroom house at 79 Wood Street, moments from Little Manly Beach, sold under the hammer for $6.33 million. The house, too small for young families but perfect for downsizers, attracted four registered bidders and three made offers.
Bidding opened at $5 million and was slow to start, according to auctioneer Clarence White from Menck White Auctioneers.
“Even at all sorts of different price points, you’ve got this kind of tentative bidding from buyers,” White said.
Bids ranging in increments of $50,000, $100,000, $10,000 and $5000 were placed on the home with a $5.25 million guide.
“I even took two 10 [thousand dollar bids] and then two five [thousand dollar bids] to finish. So that’s a bit unusual on a $6 million house to get small increments like that,” White said.
The buyer was a downsizer from the Hills area. The vendor had lived overseas since they renovated it nearly 10 years ago, and was present at the auction.
The home last traded for $1.9 million in 2007, records show.
Selling agent James Haywood from Cunninghams Real Estate said the main drawcard for the downsizers’ interest was that it was a freestanding home that wasn’t too big to maintain.
“It did have the double car garage as well, which is obviously pretty key in Manly,” Haywood said.
Along the same street, 40 people stood on the lawns of a palatial home at 6/10-12 Wood Street as auctioneer Emma Brown-Garrett from Menck White Auctioneers called the auction.
Eight registered to bid and three made offers on the home on the eastern hill of Manly in walking distance to the sailing club. All interested parties were from the northern beaches, and all bar one were downsizers.
Bidding opened at $4.4 million in $50,000 increments, climbing above the $4.5 million guide, then jumped to $100,000 bids.
After two final $25,000 bids it sold for $5.25 million.
“The bidding was so strong,” Brown-Garrett said.
The vendors’ parents had lived there for 30 years. It was sold by Georgi Bates from Cunninghams Real Estate.
In Granville a solid three-bedroom brick home at 18 Union Street with no guide but feedback around $850,000 attracted nine registered parties – all first home buyers.
Bidding opened at $700,000 and went up in $50,000 bids until $900,000, then $10,000 bids until it met its $950,000 reserve. After a handful of smaller offers it sold for $983,000 to a first home buyer from Penrith.
The home last sold for $245,000 in 2000, records show. The vendor was pleased with the result. It sold through Soon Tee from LJ Hooker Granville / Guildford / Merrylands.
SQM Research founder Louis Christopher said the auction market was swamped with volume.
“It was one of the biggest weekends we’ve had at this time of the year for many years. And so clearance rates fell from what we can see, compared to this time last week. It’s still reasonably buoyant. But I think we have found the limits of the market in terms of how much the market can absorb the current supply levels,” he said.
Christopher said there was some caution out there by buyers.
“It’s not a market in absolute boom by any means.”
The biggest drivers remain very strong based on an underlying demand from population explosion, a tight rental market and renters becoming first home buyers, he said.
“[It’s] a still fairly positive economy, overall doing a little bit better than expected. But we need to watch it because we know unemployment has been rising. But … the Sydney economy still remains rather robust.”
Christopher said on the sell side, there is slightly more distressed selling activity than this time last year.