A high-end Strathfield home repossessed by the bank sold at a mortgagee auction for $6.45 million to a young couple from Burwood on the weekend.
The luxury abode at 21 Howard Street has five bedrooms, four bathrooms and six car spaces, not to mention a home cinema. It had a price guide of $6 million.
Nine parties registered and four actively bid, all owner-occupiers, before a crowd of 100 curious people inside the enormous living space, out of the rain.
Bidding opened at $5.5 million with $100,000 bids taking it to $6 million. Then a series of $50,000 bids raised it to $6.4 million. Two final $25,000 bids took it to $6,450,000 where the hammer fell.
The minimum reserve of $6.1 million was set by the lender based on their valuation of the property. Belle Property’s Norman So said mortgagee-in-possession sales in his suburb are a rarity.
“Strathfield is the Mosman of the inner west. So we don’t normally get mortgagee [sales]. If you’re able to build and own land in Strathfield, you’re normally quite comfortable,” he said, noting the mortgagee auction drew a larger-than-normal crowd.
“The mortgagee told me that they didn’t pay the mortgage for an extended period of time. And the bank repossessed the property and handed me the keys.
“It is also a stunning home for the area for someone to be able to build brick and concrete to that standard. It’s got a lot of interesting elements like curved glass, curved concrete, and it’s not available in other homes in the suburb.”
The winning couple, who are local restaurateurs, are upsizing from an apartment. They will be selling two units they own in Burwood to make the move.
The property was one of 738 scheduled auctions in Sydney on the weekend. By Saturday evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 68.7 per cent from 499 reported results, while 110 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.
In Lindfield, a former greenkeeper’s cottage owned by Killara Golf Club sold for $3.95 million, some $700,000 above its reserve of $3.25 million. The four-bedroom house next to the ninth hole was located at 63 Provincial Road and had a guide of $3 million.
A whopping 23 buyers, mostly families, registered to bid on the property owned by Killara since 1899. The first bid knocked most people out with an aggressive $3.6 million put forward by a buyer’s agent. Four participated in the auction with bids placed in increments between $5000 and $50,000.
Selling agent and keen golfer Grant Buchanan from Belle Property Lindfield said surprisingly the interest came from many non-golfers whose main concerns at open homes were whether golf balls would go through windows and how often the green was mowed.
Buchanan said the private school culture in the area drove the sale of the property.
“Everyone wants to come up here and send their kids to private schools to get the good education to get to the good unis to get the good jobs to make the big money,” he said, adding the golf club was ecstatic with the result.
In North Ryde, a three-bedroom home located at 64 Parklands Road sold for $2.652 million to a developer who will knock it down and build two duplexes on the site. The reserve was $2.2 million.
Nine registered and five actively bid. Most were builders or investors. Bidding opened bang on the guide of $2.2 million.
McGrath’s Betty Ocklander said the main drawcard was the property’s potential and the quietness of the street.
“It’s not far from Epping Road, but it’s quiet. We walked to Macquarie Park station, the Metro line. And it’s a nice rectangular block. Probably could have got a bit more if it didn’t have the massive big gum tree in the backyard.”
The beneficiary of the deceased estate was a 97-year-old man.
LJ Hooker’s head of research Mathew Tiller said Sydney’s clearance rate of 68.7 per cent shows a slight softening, however, April’s numbers were affected by public holidays and school holidays.
Tiller said there is more consistency now than this time last year.
“There’s just a consistency in buyers, turning up each weekend at open homes and auctions. There’s a consistency of new listings coming into the market,” he said. “It’s a ‘steady as she goes’ type of market at the moment. But really, the demand-supply imbalance is what’s driving prices higher.”