A family upsizing from a unit paid $2,189,000 at auction on Saturday for a Ryde cottage with a back gate that opened directly to a large playground.
Six local families were interested in the three-bedroom weatherboard home at 44 Fawcett Street, which has a box hedge in the front and a covered back deck.
Children from the 75-strong crowd were busy playing at the playground accessible behind the house before and after the 12-minute auction.
Bidding opened at $1.9 million with four families actively bidding, at first in $25,000 rises until the price reached the $2 million price guide.
Then the stride shortened to $10,000 and $5000 bids until $2,185,000.
The final four bids were $1000 each until it sold under the hammer for $39,000 above its $2.15 million reserve for $2,189,000 to a family from Ryde.
McGrath’s Damian Kennedy said the playground was a major drawcard. “You can stand on the deck of the home and it’s about 20 to 30 metres directly in front,” he said.
“It’s a 1960s cottage-style home. So it’s got a really good-sized backyard, and also a large deck too.”
The cottage stands on a 486-square-metre block and Kennedy said there was enough room to install a swimming pool and a trampoline.
He said the market was not as “hot” as it was three months ago, but there were definitely buyers out there.
The vendor is downsizing to the northern beaches. The cottage last traded in 2003 for $550,000, records show.
It was one of 1010 scheduled auctions in Sydney on Saturday alone. By evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 62.7 per cent from 898 reported results out of 1446 auctions across the week, while 183 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.
Elsewhere, a one-bedroom art deco apartment in Woolloomooloo sold for $870,000 to a buyer who was renting nearby.
The warehouse conversion at 1/150 Forbes Street spanned a spacious 81 square metres, with soaring ceilings but no car space.
Three registered to bid on the one-bedder, which was guided at $800,000. Two of those who registered were first home buyers. Two bid actively in front of a crowd of 30 inside the apartment.
Bidding opened at $790,000 and bids from $10,000 to $5000 were placed. The property sold for $20,000 above its $850,000 reserve.
BresicWhitney’s Melinda Antella said the market was really active. “There’s still good energy in the market, [people] wanting to buy before the end of the year.”
She said the property was one of the first warehouse conversions in Sydney and was double the size of a typical one-bedder.
The vendor was from Brisbane and used the property as a Sydney base for 30 years. It was also leased out on Airbnb at times. The property last traded for $210,000 in 1994, records show.
In Sydney’s west, a three-bedroom townhouse at 2/92-94 Clyde Street, Granville, sold bang on its reserve for $900,000 to a first home buyer couple renting in the suburb. Four bid actively.
The neat and tidy townhouse in a complex of six identical homes attracted 10 registrations, all families from the area. Bidding opened at $800,000 and bids of $25,000 and $10,000 were placed until it sold, meeting its reserve.
LJ Hooker’s Joseph Nasr said they did not have a guide. “We had mixed feedback with the guide, but we had people talking in the mid-$800,000.
“It was well presented, a great location, and there is not really much on the market in terms of townhouses at the moment,” he said.
Nasr said the market was “still good at the moment. Everything we have we are selling.”
The townhouse last traded in 2011 for $405,000, records show.
PRD’s chief economist Dr Diaswati Mardiasmo said Sydney’s clearance rate of 62.7 per cent was low.
Mardiasmo noted that buyers’ priorities were shifting as the end of the year drew closer.
“They know that the cash rate is not going to change until February ... The likelihood of any interest rate changes from the bank is also very low.”
“For a lot of people, sometimes their priorities have shifted as well, from buying a home or looking for a home to getting ready to wind down,” she said.