Property sales: $9.8m paid for historic Birchgrove home ‘Vidette’
Sydney’s Birchgrove had the nation’s top auction outcome when $9,825,000 was paid for a historic 1870s home.
Sydney’s Birchgrove had the nation’s top auction outcome when $9,825,000 was paid for a historic 1870s home.
The BresicWhitney agency had given $7m price guidance for the updated two-storey home, which ranked as the second home built on the peninsula.
The four-bedroom house, which lost its waterfront status after a 1970s subdivision while retaining views across the river, had last sold at $3,075,000 in 2012.
The buyer came from elsewhere on Louisa Rd.
There was competition from just two of the three registered bidders for the 474sq m property, originally called Lenardville but renamed Vidette.
The nation’s priciest auction listing failed to sell when the Woollahra home of The Book Thief author Marcus Zusak and wife Mika was passed in on a $14 million vendor bid.
Like Vidette, Apheta, an 1890s Italianate home, was set on a 474sq m pocket-sized holding, substantially reduced from its heyday. Listed with $15m hopes, the three-storey Nelson St home had last traded at $4.5m in 2009.
Across Sydney, 766 homes went under the hammer last week, with its preliminary clearance rate rebounding to 67 per cent, the strongest of the capital city markets.
“Despite the rebound, Sydney recorded the highest withdrawal rate since mid-September, at 20 per cent,” CoreLogic’s Tim Lawless noted.
–
Missing in inaction
Melbourne’s priciest auction offering likewise didn’t sell, with the four-bedroom Head St, Brighton house with tennis court passed in at $5.35m. It is now priced at $5.95m through Marshall White; the initial pricing had been $6m to $6.6m.
There was no formal price disclosure from Marshall White when 85 Alfred St, Kew sold for $3.95m, with four bidders among the 120 onlookers. It was called on the market at $3.55m.
Buyers agent Mal James noted the Boroondara precinct was Melbourne’s only prestige municipality where the “sun is shining”. He said it was “Chinese and Chinese Australian bidding carrying the market”.
“Bayside is a ghost town and Stonnington is missing in inaction,” James advised.
Melbourne’s top reported sale was in Fitzroy North at $3.69m. The Nelson Alexander agent David Sanguinedo had given a $3.3m to $3.6m price guide for the four-bedroom home Marianella at 12 Mark St. It last traded at $115,500 in 1986.
Melbourne had the nation’s busiest weekend volume, with 981 offerings, up on the prior week’s 938.
At an improved 65 per cent success rate, with 817 results collected so far, Melbourne’s preliminary clearance rate has held above 60 per cent for its 17th consecutive week.
–
Weaker market
Across the smaller capitals, Adelaide’s market weakened to 61 per cent selling.
“It was Adelaide’s lowest preliminary clearance rate in almost two years,” Corelogic’s Tim Lawless said.
Not much difference between Canberra at 50 and Brisbane at 49 per cent.
One of the big outlier auction sales, CoreLogic noted, was on Sovereign Islands on the Gold Coast.
Ivy Realty agents Isaac Kim and Ivy Wu secured $5.68m for the five-level home Catalina at 38 Knightsbridge Parade West.
“Everything is king-sized,” Kim said of the six-bedroom, seven-bathroom home which attracted over 4000 views on realestate.com.au.
There were over 50 buyer inspections, with it sold to a local. There were two registered bidders.
It last sold at $4.1m in 2019.
–
Spring has sprung
Auction activity is set to rise to its spring peak with about 2450 auctions this week. Last week the combined capitals hosted 2266 auctions, the busiest since June. CoreLogic put the preliminary national clearance rate at 63 per cent, up from 60 per cent.
PropTrack calculate there are 933 auctions scheduled this week for Sydney. And despite the Victorian election distraction, 1035 auctions are set for Melbourne on Saturday, which is testing the depth of market demand. Melbourne vendors increase to 1146 on the first Saturday in December.
“Despite the recent increase in selling activity, auction volumes remain below the levels seen last year,” PropTrack economist Anne Flaherty said.
“This can be attributed to current selling conditions, with rising interest rates leading to increased hesitancy among sellers to go to auction.”
–
Catalano moving on
The Catalano family certainly love their real estate.
The regional media mogul Antony Catalano, who heads Australian Community Media, and wife Stefanie have sold their St Kilda West trophy home.
The mansion, listed last month with $15.5m to $16.5m price guidance, was sold last Tuesday to Hayley Morris, the daughter of Computershare founder Chris Morris, and her partner Andrew Lewis, who heads the family’s hospitality empire.
They live inland at St Kilda West, having paid $4.5m in 2018.
The Catalanos, who’d paid $4.6m in 2011, are off to the $30.5m penthouse in the nearby St Moritz, St Kilda development.
Meanwhile Antony’s son Jordan Catalano has bought at Byron Bay for $3,552,000.
His father owns the other half of the Wategos Beach duplex, having paid $2.35m in 2007, which has been followed by his big push into the prestige tourism resort market in northern NSW.
–
Melody changes tune
Elizabeth Fang-Xu Dai, who heads the Australian subsidiary of China’s leading medical device manufacturer Beijing Demax Medical Technology, has sold her waterfront weekender in Sydney’s Newport.
Melody Lane, a six-bedroom, four-bathroom mansion with beach and jetty, was bought from Pandora Jewellery founder Karin Adcock in early 2020 for $8.9m.
The imposing 1930s Beaconsfield St home, set on about 3000sq m with a 76m water frontage, has been extensively renovated, with its listing agent Richard Simeon guiding at $13m.
It is whispered to have secured $11.5m.
–
High hopes for Celeste
Celeste, the latest Sydney northern beaches listing, got off to an inauspicious start last week.
The Avalon Beach home comes with record-setting $50m hopes, but the Nine Entertainment coverage undermined its ambitious hopes, quoting Luxe Listings Sydney buyers’ agent Simon Cohen as saying its pricing by LJ Hooker agent David Edwards was “optimistic.”
Then it was reported the vendor Robert Yazbek, the co-founder of Atlas Construction Group, had been going through a “tumultuous” time following lengthy litigation with developer Fitz Jersey, a company controlled by billionaire Fortescue Metals investor Kie Chie Wong. The dispute has been about the cost of construction at a 515-apartment Mascot complex.
Yazbek and wife Annette, who purchased the 1630sq m Cabarita Rd, Avalon Beach property in 2017 for $12,995,000 from coal industry executive Malcolm MacLennan, undertook a four-year rebuild costing more than $30m, and changed its name from Cooinda.
The bright side of the last week was the 10,000-plus views on the realestate.com.au website in its first four days on market.
It could be your own Downton Abbey
Built in the 1870s, this massive pile on 2.83ha in NSW’s Hunter Valley is one of Australia’s finest heritage estates. Asking price: $10 million.
‘Relief needed to lure buyers back’
Interest rates would need to be cut five or six times to motivate buyers back into the property market, with younger Australians likely to purchase sooner.