An original 1920s block of beachfront units at Coogee sold for $15 million before a crowd of 100 at auction on Saturday.
The weathered Art Deco building at 9 & 11 Baden Street was made up of two blocks of units with three flats in each, meaning six apartments in total.
Guided at $9.5 million, ten parties registered for the investment opportunity and six made offers. Buyers were a mix of developers, landbankers and families setting up their children.
Bidding opened at $9 million and went up in $100,000 and $50,000 rises, soaring slowly above its $11 million reserve until it sold under the hammer for $15 million.
There is no legal requirement for a vendor’s reserve to be in line with their property’s price guide.
Selling agent Alexander Phillips from PPD said, “It was an amazing auction … It’s two blocks of units on separate titles sold in one line.”
“It’s right on the beach in Coogee like, it’s literally across the road, you’re on the beach.”
“That’s why it was so popular,” he said, adding that it was a “once in a lifetime” opportunity.
The buyer is a developer who will knock it down and build luxury units. Records show 9 and 11 Baden Street each sold for $1.2 million each in 2009.
The property was one of 1489 scheduled auctions in Sydney last week. By Saturday evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 65 per cent from 939 reported results throughout the week, while 231 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.
In Mosman, a two-bedroom unit at 15/5 The Esplanade just across the road from Balmoral Beach sold at its reserve of $1.95 million.
Guided at $1.9 million, the flat had a small balcony with glistening water views.
Two registered to bid, but it only took two offers from one determined local, an opening bid of $1.8 million and then the winning $1.95 million bid, to secure the keys.
Ray White’s Samuel Petrou said, “it’s been one of the busiest months … certainly this financial year, the busiest month that I’ve seen.”
The vendor is moving overseas. The property last traded for $360,000 in 1996, records show.
In Castle Cove, a five-bedroom family home at 184 Boundary Street sold for $400,000 above its $3.2 million reserve for $3.6 million.
The deceased estate had an initial guide of $3.3 million to $3.6 million, but attracted no interest at this level, so the guide was adjusted down to $3 million to $3.3 million.
Four north shore buyers registered and all actively bid, three had requested contracts prior, except one who saw it for the first time that day.
Bidding opened at $3.1 million and went up quickly in a flurry of $50,000, $30,000 and $20,000 bids until it sold under the hammer to the buyer who placed the opening bid and had been “looking for a while.”
Ray White’s Jessica Cao said, “buyer momentum certainly is very different compared to last year, with the interest rate increase. However, we do have buyers feeling this is a great opportunity to buy, not too much competition.”
The vendor owned the property for almost 30 years.
The property last traded for $700,000 in 1998, records show.
In North Parramatta, a block of four units, which are paying just under $500 a week in rent, each sold for $2,315,000 to an investor. The apartment building at 158 Pennant Street drew eight registrations, a mix of self-managed super funds, “regular people” and passive investors.
Five parties were active on the property with a guided range of $2.25 million to $2.5 million.
Bidding opened at $2 million in $50,000 bids, then stalled at $2.2 million. Further bids took the price to $2.3 million, where the vendor decided to adjust the reserve of $2.4 million to sell, dropping it by $100,000. Several smaller bids of $1000 and $2000 increased the price by $15,000, and it sold under the hammer for $2,315,000.
Selling agent Rocco Ranieri from Richardson & Wrench Parramatta said owning the apartment block is, “fairly straightforward. We’ve been managing it for about 20 years.” He added there is a potential to strata title them which means the flats could then be sold off individually.
The block last traded for $890,000 in 2006, records show.
AMP’s chief economist Dr Shane Oliver said Domain’s clearance rate of 65 per cent for Sydney is “still okay.”
“As we’ve gone through February, it’s slowed down. So it looks to me like the interest rate hike and talk with more hikes to come is sort of acting as an increasingly bigger drag on clearance rates and buyer demand.”
Oliver suspects, “the impact of the interest rate hike has started to figure more significantly.”
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