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Over the odds or on the money?

A Chinese family returning to Australia after the interruption of the pandemic has paid well over the guidance price for a Melbourne home.

10 Ludlow St, Hamilton, sold for $6.4m.
10 Ludlow St, Hamilton, sold for $6.4m.

A Chinese family returning to Australia after the interruption of the pandemic paid well over the guidance when it secured Melbourne’s second most expensive weekend auction offering.

Their $4.605m two-storey Balwyn home purchase was through Kay & Burton agent Sophie Su, who had given a $3.8m to $4.08m pre-auction price guidance.

More than 180 families had undertaken an inspection, and four competed on the day.

The winning family had undertaken a virtual tour before bidding by phone during the auction.

Set behind electric gates, the five-bedroom, three bathroom home had last traded at $2,765,000 in 2014.

The Percy St home had been a $497,000 Simonds Homes new-build in 2007 on its 717 sqm block.

A family has paid $4.6m for this property at 16 Percy St, Balwyn.
A family has paid $4.6m for this property at 16 Percy St, Balwyn.

The Balwyn sale sits within the Boroondara municipality, Melbourne’s strongest auction precinct which is being assisted by low stock levels and increased migration levels.

Last week the Australian Bureau of Statistics released figures showing Australia’s population growing by 303,700 people from net overseas migration in the year to September, with Victoria up by 96,000.

“Boroondara is the goldmine,” buyers’ agent Mal James at James Buyer Advocates said, confirming the 80 per cent vendor success rate was coming from strong “Aussie-Asian bidding”.

Melbourne’s Bayside was “still slow” and Stonnington suburbs “not much better”.

“Basically, outside Boroondara, you are a one in two chance at selling at auction,” he said.

“The good odds, the hot market, are around Boroondara, and it doesn’t look like ending anytime soon.

The back yard of 16 Percy St, Balwyn.
The back yard of 16 Percy St, Balwyn.

“Family homes are not investment decisions – they are necessities.”

Melbourne’s top sale was also in Boroondara with a four bedroom modern villa at 31 Clive Rd, Hawthorn East fetching $5.85m. With six bidders it sold for $355,000 above its reserve. There had been a $1.6m rebuild around a decade ago.

Melbourne was the busiest market last week with auction volumes rising just above 1000 for the second time this year. Of the 843 results collected so far by CoreLogic, 68 per cent were sold. But the clearance rate divide was apparent with the inner east at 81 per cent and Melbourne’s west and north west on 55 per cent.

Mixed bag in Brisbane

Brisbane had the nation’s highest advised auction sale, but also its weakest clearance rate at 55 per cent.

Matt Lancashire from Ray White New Farm sold a new build at Hamilton for $6.4m.

Soror, at 10 Ludlow St, Hamilton was the latest of Zephyr Industries founder Bryden Larkin’s niche residential projects built to a design by The Artificial. The house has 564sq m of living space with four bedrooms, four ensuites, plus a powder room.

Domino’s Pizza boss Don Meij had hoped for bids of more than $10m for this Eldernell Tce home.
Domino’s Pizza boss Don Meij had hoped for bids of more than $10m for this Eldernell Tce home.

Over 100 groups inspected during its four-week campaign, with it knocked down to a local buyer, against two interstate bidders on the phone.

There’s still no sale in Hamilton for Domino’s Pizza boss Don Meij who has $10m plus hopes for his Eldernell Terrace trophy home through Patrick McKinnon of Place Estate Agents. The offers that came ahead of last week’s cut off are being reviewed.

Meij is off to a 537 sqm sky home in Cavcorp’s new Luminare tower at Newstead which cost $12.95m.

Sun shines on Burleigh Heads

The modern Burleigh Heads offering, Bajo El Sol, dubbed a “fashion-forward beach home”, fetched $4.3m, appropriately in the 35C heat of Friday afternoon on the southern strip of the Gold Coast.

Bajo El Sol, Spanish for under the sun, is set over two levels on a 612sq m Tawarri Cres lot.

The luxury home sold through Ed Cherry, of Harcourts Coastal, in conjunction with Michael Witt, of McGrath. They had two of the three bidders compete for the keys to the four bedroom, three bathroom home.

Conceived in collaboration with BCG Building Design and then built by PJH Constructions,

“Bajo el Sol” at 5 Tawarri Crescent, Burleigh Heads, sold for $4.3m.
“Bajo el Sol” at 5 Tawarri Crescent, Burleigh Heads, sold for $4.3m.

Bajo El Sol has been the home of interior designer Kelle Davis and her husband, professional mentoring coach Steph Davis.

The property won three Queensland Master Builders awards in 2020. The building block cost $925,000 in 2019.

Meanwhile a nearby, near-new modern Queenslander home known as The Breeze House has a $4.395m asking price through Cherry following its early February auction. The 680 sqm Tawarri Cres building block last sold for $1.7m in 2021.

It is also a BCG-designed property, with gardens by JSW Landscapes & Design. The home was built by PJH Constructions, headed by Paul Harms, with interiors by Nicole Harms’ studio Our Next Project. There is a magnesium pool with resort-style lounge. It’s being marketed as having Burleigh Headland at its front door and the Tallebudgera Creek as its backyard on the most popular street in the Koala Park precinct.

Lane Cove tops list

Sydney’s top known sale was a $5.62m result in Lane Cove, followed by a $5.07m Northbridge house on a 1537sq m holding which was sold for the first time in 45 years. The Noonbinna Cres, Northbridge property comes with tidal water access. There were just the seven bids from its three bidders after its $4.8m opening offer. It last traded at $80,000 in 1977 when bought by engineer Norman Cowper and his wife, Audrey. He was responsible for the world’s first long-distance mineral slurry pipeline, built in 1967 for the Savage River magnetite concentrate mine in Tasmania.

There were 788 homes taken to auction in Sydney last week, compared to 659 in the prior week and 1,029 this time last year. The success rate sat at an improved 73 per cent after 589 results collected so far by CoreLogic.

Pre-auction sales stepped up

Some 440 of last week’s 1600 collated results across the nation had been snapped up ahead of auction day, with half of these sales coming just in Sydney.

The forthcoming weeks will likely see further momentum towards pre-auction negotiations given the Easter break has occasionally been a difficult bottleneck with market weakness from oversupply.

A prestige Centennial Park offering scheduled for April 1 auction has sold after just 14 days on market.

It had last traded when bought by the McKay family from Afterpay co-founder David Hancock for $7m in 2015. Local estate agent Mark Lowe told his database that $14.5m had been secured for the Lang Rd offering.

The pre-Easter auction listings are on the rise with Anne Flaherty, the PropTrack economist, calculating this week will see around 2,700 offerings, up from the 2,500 last week.

The following week sees closer to 3,000 auctions across the capitals, with Melbourne the most active of markets. Its auctions include a $12.5m plus March 30 offering through Buxton agent Ross Walker of a Brighton home owned by Zhushengjun Pty Ltd, which is co-directed by Melbourne commercial property investor and developer, Runlong Fang, with its shareholders giving Shandong Province addresses. The vacant home comes with tennis court, with its promotional video showing cobwebs on its court netting.

The 1870 Dudley St property last traded at $11.75m in 2017.

Jonathan Chancellor
Jonathan ChancellorProperty Writer

Jonathan Chancellor is a senior property writer for The Australian's Business Review section. He has been a journalist since the early 1980s in Melbourne and Sydney, and specialises in reporting on the residential property market. Jonathan also writes for the Daily and Sunday Telegraph.

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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/property/over-the-odds-or-on-the-money/news-story/dd3298e7968e8be36f80671dfba1a990