By Sarah Webb
In a rarely seen show of neighbourly camaraderie, an entire street turned out en masse to watch a home in Wyndham Vale sell for $580,000 at a fairytale auction on Saturday.
After the hammer fell, residents lined up to congratulate the young buyers and welcome them to the community, marking a touching moment in a quiet weekend of auction action in which first home buyers ruled.
Amid AFL grand final fever, the house – 4 Cashmere Court – was one of only 129 auctions scheduled in Melbourne on Saturday. By evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 64.6 per cent from 65 reported results, while 11 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.
Four bidders raised their hand for the refurbished four-bedroom, two-bathroom Wyndham Vale home, which featured a 712-square-metre block, a modern floorplan and a price guide of $499,000 to $549,000. It had a reserve of $550,000.
Bidding opened at $500,000 and rose in quick $10,000 increments, with the winning couple muscling out three other first home buyers in 15 minutes.
Co-selling agent James Christou, of YPA Estate Agents, said it was a top result for the buyers and sellers, made better by the show of neighbourly support.
“The whole court turned out for this auction and then everyone lined up to introduce themselves to the buyers afterwards. I’ve never seen that before,” he said.
“The couple had only been looking for two weeks too, but they fell in love with it straight away.”
The fairytale auction followed a fairytale campaign where Christou said he project-managed a pre-sale makeover on behalf of the overseas vendors.
“The owners moved to Malaysia for work, so we spent $30,000 getting it sale-ready. It was all original and it needed a bit of love. We repainted and revarnished and got everything back up to condition,” he said.
“The owners were realistic and were happy to get anything over $550,000. But we had 70 people inquire and 11 register for the auction.”
Rising construction costs are making it tough for homes that require renovations to get over the line. Christou said those properties were a battle to sell.
“Anything that’s move-in ready is flying off the shelves … but the homes struggling are those needing a lot of work, as the cost for trade work has risen 40 per cent,” he said.
In Fawkner, a first home buyer couple was stunned after outmuscling an investor to secure a four-bedroom house at 9 Claremont Street.
Featuring four bedrooms, a 534-square-metre block and a price guide of $680,000 to $720,000, it sold for $700,000 – right on the reserve.
A vendor bid of $600,000 kicked off the auction, with just the two bidders battling it out in $10,000 and then $5000 increments.
Selling agent Hamza Ali, from Ray White, said it was an emotional end to a long home hunt for the buyers.
“They had just missed out on so many homes over the past few months and they wanted a roof over their heads,” he said. “When the gavel went down, they seemed shocked and asked: ‘Did we get it?’ I said: ‘Yes, mate, you should be excited!’”
Ali said the house needed about $100,000 of renovations, but the couple saw its potential as a blank canvas.
In Chadstone, a sleek four-bedroom home featuring plantation shutters, a covered deck and a location close to Holmesglen TAFE sold for $1.07 million to another first home buyer.
Co-selling agent Rohan Cleary, from Buxton, said three bidders raised their hand for the home, which had a reserve of $990,000 and a price guide of $900,000-$950,000. It attracted mostly young couples and downsizers.
A genuine bid of $920,000 kickstarted the auction, followed by $20,000 rises until $1.02 million. From there, two bidders battled it out in $1000 and $5000 sums.
“The first home buyer couple that got it had been looking for a while and they really liked the fact that it was move-in ready,” said Cleary.
He said stock at the top end was moving thanks to competitive prices.
“A home that sold for $1.5 million a couple of years ago is going for $1.3 million now,” he said.
PRD chief economist Dr Diaswati Mardiasmo said Melbourne remained an outlier.
“Melbourne is still trying to climb out of quite deep negative growth ... and that takes a long time,” she said.
“It will continue to stagnate for a while, but it’s a bit of a catch-22 when it comes to a stable cash rate. The Reserve Bank of Australia isn’t going to meet again for a while, which means buyers can take their time knowing that they don’t need to make a decision in the next two weeks.”