A Strathfield family with two budding tennis star daughters paid $6.48 million for a Homebush house with a tennis court at auction on Saturday.
The seven-bedroom house was set on an 1846-square-metre block at 59-61 Abbotsford Road.
Bidding opened bang on its guide of $5.5 million, and went up in quick fire bidding in $100,000 increments, surpassing its $6 million reserve.
Smaller bids of $50,000, $20,000, $10,000 and $5000 followed pushing the price to $6.48 million, where it sold under the hammer.
Three out of six registered families bid for the heritage listed precinct which sold before a crowd of about 200 people.
Selling agent Matthew Everingham from Richard Matthews Real Estate noted the appeal of the home to the family’s primary school-aged daughters.
“They’ve got two young daughters who are budding future tennis stars,” he said.
He said there were more people out and about due to the election and sunny weather, and thought all the auctions he called on Saturday had larger crowds than normal.
Everingham said the large home was slightly dated: “Most buyers were saying probably another million dollars worth of renovation needed.”
“What we’re seeing in Homebush is a lot of Strathfield families looking for good value and good blocks of land that are close by. They have kids at local private schools, so to be in the neighbouring suburb was certainly the appeal,” he said.
The vendors will be downsizing locally. The address last traded for $2.4 million in 2014, records show.
The property was one of 726 scheduled auctions in Sydney this week. By Saturday evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 66.8 per cent from 428 reported results throughout the week, while 91 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.
In Sydney’s Inner West a four-bedroom, well maintained, elegant home with stained glass windows, character charm and no parking sold for $3.25 million.
The property at 36 The Boulevarde in Lewisham was originally guided at $2.8 million and later lifted to $3.1 million.
Four families from the inner west registered and all actively bid. Bidding opened at $2.8 million with a $50,000 bid. Bids shot back and forth between $10,000 and $25,000 rises until a final $25,000 bid secured it for a Dulwich Hill family.
Both the buyer and most active underbidder were from Dulwich Hill, interested in the Lewisham school catchment area. The sale price of $3.25 million also met the vendor’s reserve.
BresicWhitney’s Rhonda Yim said the buyers, “just fell in love with the house and had to sort of get everything organised very quickly to make sure they can secure it.”
Yim said because it was a “forever home” she did not believe the election had any impact at all. “Often I hear from buyers saying, ‘Look, we’re going to wait till after the election to make a decision,’ ... because it was a forever home, nobody mentioned waiting for the election.”
The vendors will be downsizing to an apartment in the city.
In Sydney’s south, 10 buyers, mostly developers registered for a knockdown in Sans Souci.
The corner block at 59 Fontainebleau Street is a level walk back from the water’s edge.
Four parties competed for the development opportunity with a guided range of $2 million to $2.2 million.
Bidding opened at $2.2 million and quickly shot up in $50,000, $25,000 and $10,000 rises soaring above its $2.55 million reserve until it sold under the hammer for $3 million.
McGrath’s Roger Lahoud said: “It went bonkers.
“It was a popular property because it’s on a prominent corner and it’s close to the beach,” he said.
Lahoud said the potential and the sought after location were the main draw cards.
The property was a deceased estate that had sat empty for a few years, it was the first time to market in 70 years.
PRD chief economist Dr Diaswati Mardiasmo said Domain’s clearance rate of 66.8 per cent was “not surprising”.
“At that rate, it’s being stable. And I’m not surprised by that, because that’s normally what happens if there’s an election,” she said.
“Also, I know that there’s a lot of people who are waiting on the RBA, and potentially another cash rate cut ,” she added.
“When it comes to election, it becomes a really funny moment, and that’s why you’ve got that stabilisation, because there’s people that are cautious, but then there’s also people that are making moves, and so that combined creates that sort of like sticky, still around that same 67 ish per cent [clearance] rate that we’ve seen for the past few weeks.”