A luxurious waterfront home sold under the hammer in Chiswick for a suburb record of $13.3 million on Saturday.
The grand four-bedroom, four-bathroom, three-level property at 31 Burns Crescent has access to a private beach and slipway into Five Dock Bay. Two registered and bid in front of a 100-strong crowd.
Ray White NSW chief auctioneer Alex Pattaro said it was the biggest under-the-hammer sale of his 13-year career as an auctioneer.
“Opening bid was $11 million. Two bids of $500,000 to $12 million. Four bids of $250,000 to $13 million. And then [it] went to $13.3 million,” he said.
Selling agent Mario Carbone from Ray White Drummoyne was unable to share the reserve, but said he was anticipating a good result.
“We knew that this home was going to set a precedent for the area, nothing like this has come to market for a very long time,” Carbone said.
The property had no price guide as there were no comparative recent sales in the area.
“Chiswick is still a little sleepy suburb, not many people know about it. So to get a result like this and put a bit more attention on the area, I think it’s only going to put it on the map,” he said.
The buyer who secured the keys for the impressive waterfront was a local family. The vendors will be downsizing to the eastern suburbs.
The home last traded for $5 million in 2013, records show.
The property was one of 820 scheduled auctions in Sydney on the weekend. By Saturday evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 66.8 per cent from 530 reported results, while 129 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.
In Strathfield’s Golden Mile, a six-bedroom renovated turnkey family home located at 8 Fairholm Street sold for $5,399,000, selling $99,000 above its $5.3 million reserve.
Six registered and four actively bid at the home, which had a price guide of $4.7 million. Bidding opened bang on the guide and bids were placed in increments of $100,000 down to $10,000.
Selling agent Tarun Sethi from McGrath Strathfield said the home was an instant solution and turnkey proposition for the north shore buyers moving areas for their children’s schooling.
“Golden Mile is a highly sought-after, prestigious pocket of Strathfield,” Sethi said, adding it stretched from Strathfield station to Hunter Street.
The vendors will be relocating to the eastern suburbs.
The renovated house last traded for $3.15 million in 2019, records show.
In Auburn, a three-bedroom townhouse spanning three levels at 5/118 Harrow Road sold for $905,000, compared with its $830,000 reserve and $750,000 guide.
Ten registered, but only two were able to bid on the home, due to one party bidding their entire budget in one go.
Bidding opened bang on the guide at $750,000, then a second bid of $900,000 was placed, leaving everyone shocked and silent for two minutes before the opening bidder decided they still wanted to be in the game and bid an extra $5000 securing the unit for a young first home buyer couple from Lidcombe.
The entire auction was made up of three bids and took three minutes from start to finish. The underbidders were Ukrainian refugees. All other registered parties were owner occupiers from within a 15-kilometre radius under the age of 40 with budgets of up to $850,000.
Selling agent Spiro Mavridis from Ray White Zoom Group said there were several points that drew interest.
“Close to transport. It was a three-bedroom. So it had the family element that’s important. And it was under a million dollars.”
Mavridis said the properties under $1 million he is listing at the moment tend to be owned by investors who want to sell their rentals because of interest rate rises.
The townhouse last traded for $789,000 in 2015.
PRD’s chief economist Dr Diaswati Mardiasmo said the clearance rate of 66.8 per cent showed that Sydney was holding stable at the moment.
Mardiasmo said the stability did not surprise her as the cash rate has been held stable.
“At the moment, buyers’ confidence is a little bit low, people are waiting to make sure that they’ve got the best bang for buck.”
She said demand was still there and buyers were still active, but they were not in as much of a hurry as before.