First home buyer snaps up two-bedroom Spotswood house for $720,000

A young first home buyer paid $50,000 over reserve for the keys to a two-bedroom home in Melbourne’s inner southwest, outbidding three other parties in a rapid-fire Saturday auction.

The villa at 1/25 Hope Street, Spotswood, with a price guide of $600,000 to $660,000, features a study nook and paved courtyard, and is only steps away from Spotswood’s cafes and shops.

Agent George Alexander, of Jas Stephens Real Estate, said the buyer, a “young girl looking to owner-occupy for the first time … bought it from the ladies that had been there for decades” for $720,000. The property’s reserve was $670,000.

There is no legal requirement for a vendor’s reserve to be in line with their property’s price guide

The auction, which opened with a genuine bid of $600,000, attracted mainly first-home buyers. It was rapid-fire and over quickly, Alexander said. He added that homes which are renovated, presented well and priced right “have got a lot of demand”.

The property was one of 1244 scheduled to go to auction in Melbourne this week.

In Watsonia, in Melbourne’s north-east, a couple buying their first home snapped up a four-bedroom house for $1,146,000.

Featuring two bathrooms, multiple living zones across two levels and a sizable backyard, the house at 10 Medbury Avenue was guided at $950,000 to $1 million, with a reserve of $1 million.

Darren Jones Real Estate auctioneer and lead agent Ashley Croall said the auction, while slow to begin, gained momentum until the low millions, with five bidders fighting for the right to call the property home.

The buyers were a young couple who had been looking for six months, Croall said, and had missed out on a “few homes across the journey”. The underbidders were also a couple who had been looking for a similar amount of time.

Croall echoed Alexander’s views of the market, saying demand was greatest for “homes that are nicely renovated”.

He said while a potential interest rate rise next week and global economic instability were dampening some buyer confidence, “if you were buying a house in February, you’re probably buying a house in May.”