A townhouse in the historic Cable Tramway Engine House in North Melbourne sold for $1,043,000 at auction on Saturday, decided by a thousand-dollar bidding battle.
The two-bedroom, two-bathroom, townhouse at 3/201 Abbotsford Street is one of 17 in the complex, and has a modern design over multiple levels.
Nelson Alexander Carlton agent and auctioneer Ryan Currie said bidding opened at $900,000, before three bidders pushed the bidding up in large increments to reach the reserve of $970,000.
The price guide for the property was $900,000 to $990,000. There is no legal requirement for a vendor’s reserve to be in line with their property’s price guide.
Once bidding passed $1 million, Currie said it slowed to increments of $5000 and $1000 before a young couple, first home buyers, made the winning bid.
The underbidders, a young family who flew in from Perth overnight, attended their first inspection immediately before the auction and were surprised by the pace and “adrenaline rush” of a Melbourne auction, Currie said.
He said he had originally sold the home to the Sydney-based vendor, who had kept it as an investment for his children, and was now selling to upsize in Coogee.
“He was actually having a bit of remorse yesterday,” Currie said. “But he said it’s been a great property, and it served its purpose.”
The property was one of 573 scheduled for auction in Melbourne this week.
In Fawkner, a three-bedroom house sold for $735,000 to first home buyers, getting over the line in post-auction negotiations.
The recently renovated house, part of a two-dwelling subdivision at 1/22 Emma Street, was advertised with a price guide of $690,000 to $750,000. The auction started with a vendor bid of $700,000.
The auctioneer and agent, Woodards Coburg’s Alex Mauro, said there was just one further bid, at $710,000, before bidding from the 15-person crowd stalled.
“People were just looking at me for a while like I had something on my face,” he said. But once the home was passed in, negotiations with the top bidders went quickly, and the vendors’ $735,000 reserve was met.
Mauro described the buyers as an “excited, giddy” young couple who were currently renting locally in Coburg.
The property, which was fully renovated in the past five years, was the vendors’ family home. However, it was rented out in the past two to three years.
Mauro said he didn’t think the Reserve Bank decision on Tuesday to raise the cash rate had done much to change buyer behaviour this weekend, and may even have coaxed some buyers to secure a home on a fixed rate.
“I’m always of the opinion that you date a mortgage rate, and you marry the home,” he said.
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