It was one of 900 homes scheduled for auction in Melbourne on Saturday. By evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 64.2 per cent from 690 reported results, while 87 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.
In Fitzroy North, three buyers competed for a two-bedroom terrace at 5 Woodside Street.
A couple who planned to live in the home paid $1,590,000 for the property under the hammer. The house beat its reserve price by $90,000. The reserve was at the top of the quoted price range of $1.4 million to $1.5 million.
Bidding at the auction opened at the bottom of the range.
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“That location is very good, that little pocket is so sought after in Fitzroy North,” Nelson Alexander Fitzroy listing agent Janine Ballantyne said.
“The house is really comfortable, but you could add value out the back in time.”
The owner-occupiers beat two other couples for the property.
“It was nice to sell one under the hammer in a competitive environment,” she said.
In Malvern East, a former rental property sold at auction to a family for $1.5 million.
Bidding for 1 Shrewsbury Street opened with a vendor bid of $1.1 million. The successful buyers entered the auction at $1.2 million. They beat two other buyers, including a buyer who waited for the house to be declared on the market at $1.32 million before making their first bid.
The buyers planned to knock down the original weatherboard home and build a new house.
The house had a quoted price range of $1.2 million to $1.32 million. The reserve was set at the top of the range. Buyers made $50,000 and $20,000 bids in the auction.
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Ray White Oakleigh listing agent and auctioneer Jonathon Eaves said the vendor sold the home because they could no longer afford the cost of owning an investment property.
“There’s so many rules and regulations now, it makes it almost not worthwhile having an investment property,” said Eaves.
“For a property on 585 square metres with an original three-bedroom home, it’s a strong result,” he said.
“We had a standout [buyer] from the get-go and they wanted to purchase it, so it worked in their favour,” he said.
PRD chief economist Dr Diaswati Mardiasmo said the Melbourne property market was in a sticky situation.
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“The intent is there, the [buyer] demand is there to have a look, but to actually translate it into a transaction is slower,” she said.
“For a seller, it would be frustrating. It’s about finding the right price point in terms of comparison.”
“There’s nothing really happening in the economy at the moment. Wages are holding, unemployment rate is holding, cash rate is stable. When it’s like this, everything just tends to stabilise and stick for a little bit.”
Source Agencies
