A 1950s red brick house in Eastwood has sold for $3,289,000 to a young couple upsizing from Campsie.
The four-bedroom home at 29 Wingate Avenue, set on 1065 square metres, was on the market for the first time since 1953.
It had a price guide of $2.45 million and drew 15 registered bidders, a mix of young couples, families and renovators.
The home was one of 763 scheduled to go under the hammer in Sydney on Saturday. By evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 66.8 per cent from 530 reported results, while 129 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.
Bidding started bang on the guide and reserve, rising in increments from $50,000 down to $10,000 for most of the auction. It came down to two bidders from $3.1 million until it sold.
The Agency North’s Catherine Murphy said it was a surprising result for a home in a local heritage conservation area that limits its redevelopment potential.
“Houses in these areas do suffer because there isn’t a whole lot of potential. You can’t easily knock the house down or easily build a duplex there,” Murphy said. “Normally, when that’s the case, you do cut your market in half so they’re not traditionally as popular, but this one bucked the trend.”
Despite that, there were enough keen buyers in the market for a home in the current environment and the block ticked several boxes.
“It had all the right things, it was in an amazing location, on the high side of the street. This is a very strong result and I don’t think it’s an indication of how our market is travelling overall at the moment.”
Eastwood’s median house price rose 5.7 per cent to $2.42 million in the year to March 2024 on Domain data.
In Canterbury, downsizers got a two-bedroom unit that sold to them for $1,097,000.
The home at 2/5 Rome Street had a price guide of $800,000 at the start of the campaign before it was revised to $850,000.
Six out of the 13 buyers, a mix of upsizers, downsizers and first timers with the bank of mum and dad, raised the price in mostly $10,000 increments.
Adrian William’s Norman Tran said the unit drew interest from many priced out inner west buyers.
“There’s still a really tight apartment market in terms of stock. A lot of inner west buyers came through and were bidders. This apartment is very large … it would be impossible to find this in the inner west and at this price point,” he said.
The home last sold for $686,000 in 2017, records show.
The median unit price in Canterbury rose 6.3 per cent to $670,000 in the past year to March.
In Bexley, a father-and-son duo bought a tired house at 576 Forest Road for $1.65 million.
The three-bedroom, set on 571 square metres, had no guide at the start of the campaign then was set at $1.15 million after the first week.
A dozen buyers registered to bid on the home, which included a mix of first timers, upsizers and investors.
Bidding opened at $1 million and went up in $50,000 most of the sell-off.
Ray White Rockdale’s Nicholas Economos said all interested buyers wanted to renovate the property in some way.
“[The successful buyers are] planning to renovate, then work it out from there, whether they want to live in it or rent out,” he said, adding that the underbidder had hoped to flip it.
The median house price in Bexley rose 23.8 per cent to $1,497,500, records show.
In Erskineville, a young couple from the inner west paid $2,185,000 for a three-bedroom townhouse.
The pair outbid five other registered bidders, all young couples or families from the area too.
The home at 8/18 Ethel Street had an original price guide of $1.8 million that was revised to $1.9 million.
Bidding opened at $2 million and quickly rose past its $2.1 million as four buyers participated in the sell off.
Raine & Horne Newtown’s Duncan Gordon said there was still strength in the market despite the economic uncertainty.
“Which is a bit of a concerning thought when rates go down, which will happen … the market is performing strongly now, properties are selling above expectations, if you’re sitting on the fence now it’s only going to get stronger when rates go down,” Gordon said.
The home last sold for $1.06 million in 2013, records show.
Erskineville’s median house price rose 12 per cent to $1,784,000 in the year to March.