Auction wrap: Toorak’s back on track with $20m-plus sale

Forget any property market recession in Toorak. Clendon, a tightly held six-bedroom 1920s trophy home, has been snapped up for $20m-plus.

57 Clendon Road, Toorak, a two-storey house with tennis court, set on a 2360sq m corner holding, came with an $18.5m to $20.35m price guide.

Forget any property market recession in Toorak. Clendon, a tightly held six-bedroom 1920s trophy home, has been snapped up for $20m-plus following its four-week expressions of interest marketing campaign.

The two-storey house with tennis court, set on a 2360sq m Clendon Road corner holding, came with an $18.5m to $20.35m price guide.

There has been no formal sale notification from its Marshall White listing agents Richard McKinnon and Fraser Cahill but the village whispers are it exceeded $20m.

One buyers’ agent noted it “sold in a shootout”.

It’s been the home of Sam Hayward, chairman of the mapping and adventure company Emprise Group.

McKinnon noted that one person looking at it had missed out on it 25 years ago.

It last traded for $3.4m in 1995, having been on the market for three years amid the last recession.

Passed in at its 1992 auction at $2.35m, it was Melbourne’s third-highest house sale in 1995, behind Mowbray in St Georges Road, Toorak.

The Italianate Victorian-style home was designed by society architect Richard Alsop. JB Hi-Fi chief executive Richard Murray recently sold another of Alsop’s Toorak creations, Glyn, for around $14m in early spring.

The other big-ticket Toorak sale was the newly-built home of Australian Finance Group co-founder Malcolm Watkins and his husband, Peter Kerr.

Again, no price was revealed but it possibly fetched just above $25m through Sarah Case of RT Edgar.

The Myvore Court home was listed by the couple after they decided to spend more of the year on the Gold Coast after Melbourne’s extended lockdown.

They lived at the five-bedroom mansion for less than a month before heading north while retaining a Mount Martha abode.

Featuring an eight-car basement garage, it came with a $23m to $25m price guide.

Developer Mark Casey is its rumoured buyer.

Melbourne marvel

Melbourne’s top weekend sale was in Canterbury when $4.45m was paid through Marshall White Real Estate for a four-bedroom Victorian-era home with study.

It was a restored 1890s home with five marble open fireplaces plus a Canny Builders extension with an 18,000 litre underground water tank.

There is also a salt water, solar-heated pool and alfresco BBQ entertaining area on its 880sq m holding at 15 Margaret St.

The second-highest weekend auction sale was a contemporary five-bedroom Surrey Hills home that fetched $4,005,000.

The 7 Neath St offering, built in 2017, kicked well beyond the vendors’ hopes, having been listed with $3.6m expectations.

The $3.353m REALas price prediction was a tad low, given its $1.1m rebuild after a 1920s bungalow was bulldozed when last traded at $2,030,000 in 2015.

ANZ, in marketing for its customers, suggested tempted buyers do not exceed the REALas price guide when they buy at auction.

The last two 7 Neath Street sale prices highlight the adage that going the extra bit — $5000 on Saturday and $30,000 five years ago — beyond the round number will often secure the prize.

Class apartment

Melbourne’s top weekend apartment sale was in its CBD when $1.68m was paid in the Russell Street high-rise Abode.

Set in the 2014 Elenberg Fraser-designed tower, the 160sq m apartment comes with three bedrooms and three bathrooms plus study.

1401/318 Russell Street, Melbourne.

The 1401/318 Russell St unit sold within its $1.6m to $1.7m Belle Property price guide. It last sold off the plan in 2012 at $1,545,000.

Melbourne was host to 894 auctions, overtaking Sydney as the busiest capital city for auctions.

Of the 756 results collected so far by CoreLogic, 71 per cent were successful.

Time for a change

There was keen bidding for a treechanger holiday home offering in Victoria that came with a resort-style lagoon and beach.

Set five minutes’ drive from Bradford, the 250 Smiths Lane, Sunday Creek offering fetched $1.7m at a hybrid on-site and online auction with five registered bidders in the audience.

250 Smiths Lane, Sunday Creek.

The Ray White office had 40 groups through over the four-week marketing campaign of the 12ha holding with a four-bedroom 2015-built home.

“Some were family buyers, others were looking for a holiday retreat away,” selling agent Trish Orrico says.

The buyers were a couple wanting a holiday home to share with their children and grandchildren.

Canberra leads

There were 2155 homes scheduled for auction across the capital cities in the last week of spring, up from 1803 the prior week, according to CoreLogic.

Of the 1763 results collected so far, 74 per cent have reported a successful result, just slightly higher than last week’s preliminary auction clearance rate of 73.6 per cent, which was revised down to 69 per cent at final figures.

Over the same week last year, 3206 homes were taken to auction and 73 per cent of reported results were successful.

32 Beauchamp Street, Deakin.

Canberra was the top-performing capital city market, and the only capital where listings were higher than late spring last year.

CoreLogic put its clearance rate at 78 per cent with its 117 offerings, up on the 87 this time last year.

Canberra’s top sale was $2.64m in Deakin. The 32 Beauchamp St home was an early 1960s home built on a 1225sq m block that backs onto the Red Hill Nature Reserve.

It last sold in 2012 at $1.22m, more than doubling in price over the past eight years.

Deakin house prices, based on five years of sales according to realestate.com.au, have typically seen an annual compound growth rate of 6.5 per cent.

Bellevue beauty

Sydney saw 887 homes taken to auction this week, compared to 805 over the prior week and 1221 this time last year. The preliminary clearance rate came in at 77 per cent, close to the previous corresponding period’s 78 per cent success rate.

97 Beresford Road, Bellevue Hill.

Sydney’s top reported Saturday result was when Sotheby’s International secured $5.4m for a classic 1920s sandstone bungalow in Bellevue Hill with 15 registered parties.

It was offered for the first time in 94 years. There’s the prospect of northeast-facing harbour views with any second-storey home on its 620sq m holding, with street frontage to Beresford Road and Drumalbyn Road.

Singo sells

Adman John Singleton sold his Redfern investment apartment for $2,755,000, well above its $2.4m reserve, at a weekend auction.

There was bidding from five of the six registered buyers for the three-bedroom Chalmers Street penthouse, which had been the home of his ex-wife, the late Maggi Eckardt.

Singleton’s investment company bought the unit for $1.28m in 2007, which was less than its initial $1.35m sale two years earlier.

The Singleton investment company had sold Eckardt’s Kangaroo Point, Brisbane, apartment abode for $850,000 in 2007, having paid $730,0000 in 2003.

Red hot market

Queensland saw a 63 per cent success rate with some huge bidder registrations.

There were 40 registered when Ray White Mount Gravatt offered the two-bedroom cottage at 45 Gatton St, Mount Gravatt East.

The deceased estate fetched $945,000, some $95,000 above reserve, as its 15 active bidders vied for the 840sq m property with potential to be split into two blocks of land.

Most of the buyers were developers, with selling agent James Austin describing the market as “red hot”.