A waterfront Hunters Hill apartment with jaw-dropping views of Sydney Harbour sold for $9,550,000 at auction on Saturday.
The single storey four-bedroom resort style property located at 18/2-10 Le Vesinet Drive had a private 12-metre marina berth and a four-car lockup garage.
Two bidders took part in the swift auction held on the terrace brimming with dozens of onlookers, who were mostly locals.
Bidding opened at $8.3 million, and $100,000 and $50,000 bids placed until the price soared $800,000 above the $8.75 million guide. The unit sold under the hammer.
McGrath Hunters Hill selling agent Matt Ward said the majority of people living in the apartment building were empty nesters.
“You’ve got pools, you’ve got tennis courts, you’ve got nice garden areas that you can still enjoy, but you don’t have to look after them yourself,” he said.
Ward said the home had a “gun-barrel” view of the city. Credit: McGrath
“And apart from the facilities of the estate, it’s got a fantastic, gun-barrel view of the city and the Harbour Bridge,” he said.
Ward would not share the reserve.
The buyer was downsizing from a larger property in Hunters Hill, Ward said. The vendors purchased the property in 1999 and planned to buy a smaller home on the lower north shore.
The property was one of 470 scheduled auctions in Sydney on the weekend.
By evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 67.7 per cent from 300 reported results, while 70 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.
In Pymble, a four-bedroom home at 1 Grandview Street, next to busy Mona Vale Road, sold for $2.45 million. The sale price was $200,000 more than the guide and reserve of $2.25 million.
Five registered and three actively bid for the property. The vendor’s $2.25 million reserve had been communicated to interested buyers in the week leading up to the auction.
Bidding opened at $2.2 million and the home sold under the hammer.
McGrath Wahroonga selling agent Bronwen Lipscombe said she employed an unusual strategy by disclosing the reserve to every interested buyer before the auction.
“We actually disclosed the reserve with my vendors permission, because we didn’t want people to think that, it was a $2.25 [million] guide, wanting, you know, $3 [million],” Lipscombe said.
“So very rarely do you get a property that sells at this price point in that location, but because it was side-on to Mona Vale Road, which is a six-lane thoroughfare, we needed to make it attractive.”
The home was the vendor’s first family home, but had recently been an investment property. They had spent six weeks styling the property and making it “move in ready”.
The buyers were a young family that were happy to be upsizing from an apartment in Chatswood, Lipscombe said.
The house last traded for $1.18 million in 2010, records show.
In Maroubra, a two-bedroom apartment with ocean views and walking distance to the beach sold for $1.44 million, $115,000 more than its $1,325,000 million reserve.
Five registered and four actively bid on the unit at 7/2 Ford Road . The property attracted mostly young couples and families, Ray White selling agent Jason Malouf said.
He guided at $1.25 million to $1.3 million and bidding opened at $1.15 million. The price went up in $50,000, $10,000 and $5000 bids before it sold to a couple who were renting in the area.
Malouf said it was a tightly held enclave.
“It was a nice, quaint, good unit. And it was [the] location and view. People just loved it. It was stunning, to be honest with you,” he said.
“Things tend to be turning over. Not as many listings as we would be used to. But things are still selling, and they’re selling strong for the right property.”
LJ Hooker head of research Mathew Tiller said the clearance rate of 67.7 per cent showed that Sydney’s auction market was still solid, despite low volumes thanks to the long weekend.
“Clearance rates have been softening week-on-week over the past month or so as auction listings dry and affordability softens a little bit,” he said.
Tiller said lack of supply was affecting the market, but buyer demand was still strong for both affordable and top-end homes. The middle of the market, which was mostly families with mortgages, were less active.
“First home buyers are more active in the market at the moment, given the rental crisis,” Tiller said. “Rents are still rising, so there’s still buyers looking who are tenants, or looking at a home that they can afford a deposit [for].”