First home buyers snap up bayside three-bedder for $1.77m

A St Kilda house in need of a little love sold at Saturday’s auction for $300,000 over reserve after a first home buyer couple paid $1.765 million for the three-bedroom property.

With a price guide of $1.3 million to $1.4 million, the auction of 17 Fawkner Street attracted well over 40 onlookers and four serious bidders, who battled it out for nearly 15 minutes before victory was secured.

The reserve price was $1.46 million. There is no legal requirement for a vendor’s reserve to be in line with their property’s price guide.

The property was one of 1417 scheduled to go to auction in Melbourne this week. By evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 70.3 per cent from 1048 reported results throughout the week, while 105 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.

Auctioneer Nick Renna took the bidders through a competitive session with an opening bid of $1.45 million, where two couples battled it out until the $1.725 million mark, at which point the third and fourth bidders stepped in.

Connor Delany from Jellis Craig Brighton said the winners, a couple with teenage children, were renting in Albert Park and had been on the lookout for their first property.

A couple snapped up their first home at an auction in St Kilda on Saturday.Credit: Joe Armao

“Those buyers came from Barcelona, they’ve been here for about 15 years, and it’s their first purchase,” he said. Most of the potential buyers were local, with many looking to “renovate and live in the house, or flip it”.

“The house needs some TLC,” Delany said. The underbidders included a couple with nearby family, an upsizer in an apartment, and an older European man.

The house at 17 Fawkner Street, St Kilda, needs some “TLC”. Credit: Joe Armao

Delany said the vendors, a couple looking to retire on the Peninsula coast, were selling the St Kilda property (one of four investments around Melbourne) to free up some equity.

Thirty kilometres east of Melbourne’s CBD, four families battled it out for a palatial home in outer suburb Croydon South. The five-bedroom and three-living-area home at 27 Andrew Crescent, located on 1,349 square metres of land, drew a crowd of eight bidders, four of whom were active on Saturday.

The winners, a young family who had relocated from the UK, bought the house from the Darwin-based vendor for $1.365 million – $85,000 over the reserve price of $1.28 million. The house was guided at $1.15 million to $1.25 million.

Ray White Ringwood lead agent and auctioneer Chris Watson said the area was so attractive to families because of the large blocks and lack of developers in the area.

“You can’t develop the big blocks, which means there are no townhouses or developments,” he said.

A young family who recently relocated from the UK bought the large home in Croydon South.Credit: Domain

Closer to the city, an older couple downsizing from St Kilda snapped up an extended three-bedroom heritage home in Yarraville for $1.662 million, after battling three families hoping to secure their next home in the area.

The spacious, fully renovated family home at 11 Cuming Street features two bathrooms, an open-plan kitchen and lounge, and is located near Yarraville Village.

It was guided at $1.5 million to $1.58 million and bidding opened at $1.6 million. Jas Stephens Real Estate agent Elise Nemer wouldn’t disclose the reserve price, but said it was “towards the top of the guide range”.

The buyers, she said, were an older couple who had previously lived in Seddon and hoped to return to the area. “They missed the inner west,” she said.

The bidding, which went up in increments of $10,000 before tapering off into $1000 bids, was fierce as families renting in the area tried to buy the home. One underbidder had rushed to “get their finance sorted in one week” to bid on Saturday, Nemer said.

“They weren’t actively looking, but when they saw the house they got their finance in order,” she said.

The backyard of the home at 11 Cuming Street, Yarraville.Credit: Domain

Many of the bidders were hoping to get into the market before the next interest rate cut, as they feared they would face more competition, Nemer said.

In Northcote, a home of a different style sold for $40,000 over the top of the price guide of $800,000 to $880,000, and for $70,000 above the reserve of $850,000.

Marketed as “classic charm meets future opportunity”, the two-bedroom house at 150 Westgarth Street was “unliveable” and needed a full renovation, said agent Spiros Karagiannidis from Nelson Alexander Northcote.

“There were three bidders, all young couples, all looking at this house as a value way to get into Northcote,” he said. The winning bidder, a couple in their 30s, bought the property for $920,000 after a competitive auction.

The “unliveable” home in Northcote sold for $70,000 above reserve.Credit: Domain

The house had been in the vendor’s family for 60 years and was vacant for some time. They put the house on the market as they felt interest rate cuts were fuelling buyer interest after a period of low growth, Karagiannidis said.