A couple on their way to a registry to get married stopped to bid on a Tennyson Point house, which sold for $4,051,000 under the hammer.
Six registered, and all six competed for the four-bedroom home with swimming pool at 71 Champion Road. Belle Property Hunters Hill selling agent Michael Gallina had guided the property at $3.4 million.
Bidding opened at $3.42 million and big bids were placed until the price went past the $3.8 million reserve. There is no legal requirement for a vendor’s reserve to be in line with their property’s price guide.
Many neighbours gathered to watch the auctions, Gallina said. Gasps were heard in the crowd because of the bidders’ competitive spirit, he said.
The soon-to-be married couple missed out on securing the property by $30,000 on their wedding day. A West Pennant Hills buyer paid $251,000 more than the vendor’s reserve price.
“The home was built 30 years ago, but it was on 510 square meters of land, which is a smaller block compared to others in the area,” Gallina said. “So what that meant was that families weren’t competing with developers.”
The vendors planned to move to Kingscliff. The house last traded for $260,000 in 1993.
The property was one of 954 scheduled auctions in Sydney over the weekend. By evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 69.7 per cent from 634 reported results, while 140 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.
In Manly, the estate of a 92-year-old bachelor will donate the takings from the sale of a $2.86 million investment property to two charities after it sold under the hammer.
The two-bedroom apartment at 8/140 Addison Road was guided at $2.5 million and sold for $160,000 more than its $2.7 million reserve. Four bidders registered and three competed.
Bidding opened at $2.4 million with $25,000 bids until it was on the market at $2.7 million then a few $10,000 and $5000 bids were placed until it sold under the hammer for $2.86 million.
“He was a 92-year-old bachelor who didn’t have any kids, and the money went to two charities,” Stone Real Estate Manly selling agent Mark Skeens said. He said the executor did not disclose who the charities were.
“We gave it a good freshen-up, we painted it, we styled it … but the kitchens and bathrooms are original, so the buyer would most likely be renovating them,” he said.
Skeens said the market was starting to turn in favour of sellers.
The buyers were a downsizing couple local to the northern beaches. The deceased estate was purchased in 1977 for $41,500.
In Strathfield, a buyer from the suburb snapped up a five-bedroom home for $6.43 million after seeing it for the first time that day. The luxurious residence at 39 Myrna Road had a four-car basement, manicured gardens and swimming pool.
Six registered and four actively competed for the palatial home guided at $5.8 million.
Bidding opened bang on the guide, then went up in $50,000 and $25,000 increments, soaring above its $6.3 million reserve until hitting $6,425,000. Then a final $5000 bid sold it for $6.43 million under the hammer.
McGrath Strathfield selling agent Tarun Sethi said several big sales were finalised in the suburb on the weekend, which was a “good indicator of the strength in the Strathfield market”.
The vendor was a builder who built the property himself.
The address last traded for $1,655,000 in 2015, records show.
PRD’s chief economist Dr Diaswati Mardiasmo said Domain’s clearance rate of 69.7 per cent is what she expected of the Sydney market.
“I think 70 per cent is something that we can definitely expect, even with winter, just because that was the level that we went up to when the cash rate dropped down,” she said.
Mardiasmo said Sydney prices were growing more slowly than was normal for the city, and that an uptick in buyer activity suggested they were trying to take advantage of the sluggish market.