Bayside house sells for $1.7m but will be demolished for ‘dream family home’

A first-home buyer beat four others for the keys to a rear unit in Melbourne’s northern suburbs on Saturday, paying $540,000, which was $115,000 above reserve.

The one-bedroom home at 6/75 Barton Street in Reservoir was guided at $420,000 to $460,000, with a reserve of $425,000.

Hockingstuart Epping selling agent John Pasceri said the vendor was in “complete shock about the result.”

“I couldn’t get a word out of him for about five minutes,” he said.

There were seven registered bidders, all first-home buyers, with five ultimately bidding in the competitive auction.

Opening at $420,000, Pasceri said the property was called on the market quickly.

“It rose quickly to $490,000, and then slowed down a bit with bids of $10,000 to about $500,000,” he said. “After that, it escalated to $540,000 in four or five bids.”

The location, close to Reservoir train station, and the property had many features attractive to first-home buyers, Pasceri added.

“Being at the rear of a set of units, and the cathedral ceilings which give a sense of grandeur not common among single-level homes, it was a great property at the right price,” he said.

The property was one of 1250 scheduled to go to auction in Melbourne this week.

By evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 59 per cent from 878 reported results throughout the week, while 194 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.

In Melbourne’s north-east, a freshly updated four-bedroom house sold under the hammer for $915,000.

The home at 34 Peugeot Pursuit, Mill Park was listed with a price guide of $770,000 to $830,000, and had a reserve of $830,000.

“It was a huge result, and the vendors were delighted,” said lead agent and auctioneer Nick Petrovski from Ray White South Morang. “They are investors looking to retire soon and wanted to restructure their finances.”

Three active bidders took part in the auction: two first-home buyers and a couple looking to upsize.

Bidding opened at $750,000 and rose in $10,000 increments, Petrovski said. “It was slow until $810,000, but then there was an attempted knock-out bid followed by another $1000 bid.”

From $830,000 onwards, only two bidders remained, with the upsizing couple proving successful in “the well-contested auction,” he added.

The result was in part due to the vendor’s work preparing the home for sale.

“They put a fresh coat of paint, had new carpet and lighting installed before putting the home on the market. A decision that made a big difference to the outcome,” Petrovski said. “Well-presented homes can have a huge bearing on the sale price.”

In Beaumaris, a deceased estate sold under the hammer for $1,685,000, netting the vendors $25,000 above reserve.

The home at 17 Tibbles Street was listed with a price guide of 1,650,000 to $1,815,000 and had a reserve of $1,650,000.

Two active bidders took part in the auction: the underbidder, who was looking to live in the property, and the successful bidder, a local family who will knock down the existing home and build a new one.

“They are looking to build their dream family home,” said listing agent Andrew Boyce from Hodges Real Estate Beaumaris.

The “typical Beaumaris home”, a brick, three-bedroom, two-bathroom property on a north-facing, 783 square metre block, was lived in by only one owner, Boyce said.

The auction opened with a vendor bid of $1,550,000, then rose in $20,000, $10,000, and $5000 increments.

Boyce said that the auction drew a crowd of around 25, which was a “pretty good” number.

“The days when we got bigger crowds of fifty or so people aren’t happening any more. It is usually now just neighbours and anyone who is actually genuinely interested in bidding,” he said.

He believes that this reflects the current property market in the area.

“It’s pretty tough at the moment,” Hodges said. “With the cost of living getting higher and a potential rate rise next week, it’s making it hard.”

LJ Hooker’s head of research, Mathew Tiller, said the auction clearance rate was a “good result” given the current economic climate.

“There are still people attending open homes and turning up to auctions, the numbers are still there, especially for the more affordably priced homes,” he said.

With strong employment and wage growth in Victoria, Tiller said that, regardless of the upcoming RBA announcement, “the Melbourne market has a lot of potential for first home buyers”.