A lavishly renovated former milk bar in Fitzroy North sold for $5.1 million at auction on Saturday, almost $1 million over its reserve.
The four-bedroom, Victorian weatherboard home at 558 Rae Street was updated by local architects Kennedy Nolan. It has a landscaped central courtyard, exposed concrete and timber details throughout.
The property was one of 1226 scheduled to go to auction in Melbourne this week.
With a price guide of $3.9 million to $4.3 million, bidding started at a “cheeky” $3.2 million, Nelson Alexander Fitzroy auctioneer and lead agent Mark Verrocchi said.
After a vendor bid of $3.9 million, bidding leapt up “very quickly”, he said, in increments of $20,000 and $50,000, before hitting the reserve of $4.2 million.
Verrocchi said a “rapid fire” auction pace, with four young families and a couple in their 50s competing, led to a quick sale.
The Kennedy Nolan-designed central courtyard which gives light and air to the former milk bar.Credit: Nelson Alexander
The buyers, a young family, already had siblings in the area and had been looking for some time.
Verrocchi said the vendors were returning to their hometown in Newcastle, NSW, where hoped to repeat their success with another renovated home.
“Every single thing that you could possibly want as a feature, this home had,” he said. “I could have stood there for longer than the auction and just named all the features.”
A former laundromat and grocery in the heart of Coburg fetched $1,130,000 at auction on Saturday, almost 15 per cent over reserve.
The updated three-bedroom Edwardian sits on a corner at 105 Munro Street, and had a price guide of $900,000 to $990,000.
It features Baltic pine floors, a timber dining nook and pink accents in the kitchen and bathroom.
Barry Plant agent and auctioneer Jarrod Couch said there was “a bit of history in the building”, including a study which preserved the original shopfront, and the property drew in interest.
Couch started with a vendor bid of $900,000, and the bidding began in earnest at $910,000.
The former storefront at Munro Street has been converted into a study nook,Credit: Barry Plant
Bidding crept up in $10,000 increments, with three bidders competing to easily pass the $990,000 reserve. A couple in their 30s won the day to land their first home.
The vendors, who moved to NSW to retire four to five years ago, had recently been renting the home as an investment.
“They’ve got no plans to come back to Melbourne, and decided now’s the time to move it on,” Couch said.
He said his two auctions this year had both sold reasonably comfortably, and thought more broadly that buyers hadn’t been intimidated by recent increases in interest rates.
“I think the sentiment from buyers is that they realise the recent interest rate hike is a small drop in the pond,” he said.
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