By Tom Carey
A renovated family home in leafy Hawthorn East exceeded its reserve price by $400,000 to sell at auction for $3.75 million on Saturday.
A young family beat four other competitive bidders to take the keys of the five-bedroom entertainer’s residence at 24 Pleasant Road in front of a crowd of 100 people.
The price guide was $3 million to $3.3 million for the two-storey home. Once the auction commenced, bidding instantly cleared the reserve price of $3.35 million.
All five bidders were young families looking for a recently renovated home in an exclusive location. The successful bidders will move into the suburb to be close to sought-after schools in the area.
Behind the 1920s facade, the residence has multiple living spaces, three bathrooms and a modern open-plan kitchen area with butler’s pantry. The entertainer’s ideal indoor-outdoor living space also features an outdoor kitchen and barbecue.
“The home had a good layout for a family. A good floor plan, with a balance of formal rooms at the front and an entertaining area at the back,” said Kay & Burton Boroondara partner Scott Patterson.
The auction was one of 513 auctions scheduled in Melbourne on Saturday. By evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 62.9 per cent from 369 reported results, while 33 auctions were withdrawn.
Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.
But the supply of these family homes in the inner-east suburbs is low and is likely to slow even further during winter.
“If we had another 10 of these homes, we could sell all 10 of them today. These properties sell like hotcakes,” said Patterson.
In Bundoora, a house that had been gifted by parents to their children while they studied at university was sold for $980,000 on Saturday.
The reserve price for the property at 14 Oxford Drive was $850,000 but bidding quickly surpassed that price. Four bidders contested with only 15 bids made during the proceedings as 200 people watched. The auction lasted only 4½ minutes.
In 2014, the former vendors had bought the property for $620,000 for their children to live in while they studied at La Trobe University.
“They never actually bought the home to try for it to have good investment potential. They have been pleasantly surprised,” said Ray White Bundoora’s Rayni Jerram.
The three-bedroom, two-bathroom home is near Plenty Road and tram route 86. The buyer was an older man who had rented in Bundoora for many years. Other registered bidders included young families, first-home buyers, downsizers and investors.
“It was just in that perfect pocket, where it’s really close to a lot of the transport options, but it’s also in a nice street that people want to live in it as well,” said Jerram.
In Flemington, a two-bedroom apartment sold on Saturday for $600,000 to a first-home buyer from Western Australia. The auction was brought forward a week early because of a bid placed eight days before the original auction date.
The apartment had a price guide of $485,000 to $530,000. The first-home buyer surprised the owner of 3/16 Bignell Street when she submitted a bid of $530,000 on Friday, which matched the unit’s reserve price.
The auctioneers and the owner decided to bring forward the auction by a week to Saturday rather than settle after the first bid. A crowd of 40 people were present.
“The owner thought it was a sign because they were waiting for the auction to start, and then the rain cleared and a massive rainbow came out,” said Nelson Alexander Flemington Partner Ryan Currie.
The Western Australian was represented by an advocate who won the apartment from two other bidders.
“She was in Perth sitting around on speakerphone with her family. When she knew she got it, she was stoked,” said Currie.
Ray White chief economist Nerida Conisbee said that the clearance rate from Saturday is below a healthy market.
“The market is recovering, but it’s not a super-fast recovery that we’re seeing in Melbourne. Interest rate rises are still cutting into buyer demand,” she said.
“The top end of the market is doing the best for the really expensive properties in really premium locations.”
“Given that we’re starting to see a bit of a recovery in prices, we should start to see more properties come up for sale. By spring, we should start to see a more normal market.”