Real estate sales: Prestige property prices on the slide in Melbourne
Forecasts of falling property prices were realised in Melbourne’s prestige auction market at the weekend.
Forecasts of falling property prices were realised in Melbourne’s prestige auction market at the weekend.
The 5 per cent price decline came when $4.3m was paid for Melbourne’s top-priced offering, a five-bedroom Balwyn North trophy home.
The French Provincial-style home had sold for $250,000 more at $4.55m in 2017 through Jellis Craig, shortly after the showpiece house was built. With a Gold Class-style theatre room amid its 580sq m interiors, the Jacka St home was sold within its $4m to $4.4m pre-auction price guide from Brian Chen at VICPROP Manningham. It’s set on 1012sq m within the highly prized Balwyn High School zone.
The sale contract revealed a 2020 restraining caveat on the title taken by the Australian Federal Police after an order by Justice Robert Dyer, a judge in the County Court.
The order noted suspicion that the property might have been bought with the proceeds of money laundering by co-owner, Tinghu Cheng of Hubei Province, China, breaching section 400.3 (1) of the criminal code.
The price decline came despite Balwyn North having seen a compound growth rate of 13 per cent, based on five years of sales, according to realestate.com.au.
It wasn’t all backwards as Balwyn North also had Melbourne’s second-priciest result when $3.43m was paid pre-auction for a five-bedroom 2012-built Hunt St house that had previously sold in 2016 at $2.69m.
With 500 results collected so far by CoreLogic, 59 per cent of the listings found buyers, which was up on results over the past fortnight.
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A piece of history
The onsite harbourfront auction of Blau House, Mosman, was the nation’s top auction sale with $11.5m secured. Three of the five registered bidders participated in the auction.
The 1570sq m northeast-facing bushland block with direct access to Cobblers Bay sold through Stephen Patrick at Richardson & Wrench Mosman, who’d initially given a $15m to $16.5m price guide.
The Cyprian St home became a deceased estate during the extended campaign after the death of Patricia Blau at 92. It had been held in the family for seven decades.
It came with a three-bedroom Federation boathouse, plus the original house, which Douglas Snelling updated between 1959 and 1962 into a mid-century four-edroom residence.
Architectural critic Davina Jackson referred to the extensions in her book Douglas Snelling: Pan-Pacific Modern Design and Architecture.
She said he was influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright’s organic aesthetic.
Jackson noted Snelling had “cooled his Wrightian style by the mid-1950s” as his sentiments aligned with the “California-Polynesia tropical paradise lifestyle movement known as the tiki style”.
Snelling designed for some of Sydney’s wealthy, including two homes for the Woolworth’s chairman Sir Theo Kelly and his wife, Nancy.
Jackson, who did a PhD thesis on Snelling, described him as a “glamorous yet forgotten 1950s rival of Harry Seidler”.
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Auction inaction
Of the 610 Sydney homes auctioned this week, 487 results have been collected so far, returning a preliminary clearance rate of 57 per cent.
The prior week’s 52 per cent preliminary rate was revised to 49.9 per cent at final figures, according to CoreLogic, fulfilling the forecast that Sydney’s auction success rate is heading into the 40s.
There’s been little change in the very high auction withdrawal rate, which sits at 26 per cent.
Former Woolworths chief and Myer chairman Bill Wavish and his wife Vonnie postponed the weekend auction of their penthouse in Milsons Point’s Aqualuna development.
The three-bedroom, two-bathroom penthouse had an initial $6.75m guide through Di Jones’s Nigel Mukhi, with it now rescheduled for July 30 auction with a revised $6.5m guide.
The couple paid $6.5m in March last year for one of the three ninth-floor Alfred St apartments. Its initial off-the-plan buyer was Graham Mirabito, the digital property data pioneer, who paid $7m.
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Active Adelaide
Across the smaller capitals, Adelaide was the busiest with 159 auctions, followed by Brisbane’s 143 and 88 auctions in Canberra.
None of the three results collected in Perth was successful, while one of the two in Tasmania recorded a successful result.
Brisbane had its lowest preliminary clearance rate since November 2020 at 43 per cent.
Both Adelaide and Canberra recorded a preliminary clearance rate of 68 per cent.
Canberra’s top result was a $3m luxury home in O’Connor with 262sq m of internal space through Ray White agent Maree Van Arkel.
The 2021-built home at 106 Scrivener St was designed by Tomi Milin Architects.
The home has three separate ducted climate control systems, electric windows and under-tile heating in wet areas.
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Hamilton shines
Prestige listings in Brisbane saw a Hamilton home sell shortly after auction for $5.025m, having been passed in at $5m.
Its longtime former name Wongwibinda, an Aboriginal word meaning ‘‘stay a long time’’ is a misnomer, since it was up for sale just two years after its 2020 sale at $1.55m.
Set across three levels on the 794sq m holding at 112 Crescent Rd, the home has undergone a transformation by Redlac Constructions.
The renovation more than doubled the size of the original 1940s house with plenty of timber, stone, glass, and concrete.
Brisbane’s next highest sale was a renovated Cape Cod-style home in Ascot at $3.65m
The 1930s home at 14 Inverness sold through Ray White New Farm’s Matt Lancashire and Annette Richards after a marketing campaign that attracted 4165 online views and 92 buyer inspections.
Five registered bidders attended. and four were active.
The empty nester vendors, who bought it in 2015 at $1.75m, sold to a local family.
The home had been built for one of the daughters of the pioneer retailer, Thomas Charles Beirne, whose £1,251,000 probate in the late 1940s ranked him as one of the earliest millionaires in Queensland.
Beirne had ordered the Cape Cod architectural plans by mail from the US when he built on three adjoining properties, another of which fetched $5.5m late last year after being redesigned by architect Rob Cottee from Cottee Parker.
A new, fully furnished home at Bulimba, designed by architect Tim Stewart with a 40sq m entertainer’s rooftop and two outdoor kitchens, failed to sell.
Scott Darwon and Brandon Wortley from Ray White placed a $3.98m vendor bid for Rozelle, the speculatively built 6 Kenbury St offering.
The top offer by the four registered bidders, including one phone bidder from Sydney, was $3.72m.
The vendors were Flooring, Bathroom, Interiors (FBI) owners Michael and Natalie Ajaje, who are neighbours.
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