Coogee corner house with 12 bedrooms fetches $5 million at auction

A 12-bedroom, freestanding house on a corner block in Coogee sold for $5 million at auction on Saturday after the vendor trimmed their hopes to secure a sale.

The grand classic home at 302 Arden Street, guided at $5 million, was run as a boarding house and had five bathrooms and a communal kitchen.

Four parties registered and three made offers. All were boarding house operators that own similar properties.

Bidding opened at $4.75 million and went up in $100,000 increments and $10,000 bids at the end until it sold under the hammer for $5 million. Its reserve was $5.3 million but it was adjusted on the day.

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

Selling agent Clint Ballard from Sydney Sotheby’s International Realty said, “properties are selling if the owners are prepared to meet the market.”

“The location [is] within a couple hundred metres from Coogee Beach, you know it’s pretty rare.”

The vendors are from Coogee. The buyers are from the eastern suburbs. The property last traded for $1.45 million in 2005, records show.

The property was one of 1895 scheduled auctions in Sydney last week. By Saturday evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 55 per cent from 1164 reported results throughout the week, while 369 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.

Elsewhere, a five-bedroom family home in Gordon, 100 metres from the train station sold for $7,138,000, or $138,000 above its $7 million reserve.

Built in the year 2000, the house at 8 Khartoum Avenue was guided at $6.4 million.

Seven parties registered and four were active on the stately property with a studio with its own separate access.

Bidding opened at its $6.4 million guide and went up quickly in $50,000 increments until $7 million. Then smaller bids ranging from $25,000 to $2000 bids were met out until it sold for $7,138,000 before a crowd of 150 people.

LJ Hooker’s Jing Peng said buyers were drawn to, “location, since 100 metres from the station. So home buyers, if they would like convenience, hop on, hop off, and for kids, and you know also, Gordon is [a] big centre for upper north shore lifestyle wise.”

Peng said, “You can hear the train, but not much.“

The vendor is moving to a retirement village. The buyers are a “big family” upsizing locally.

The home last traded for $480,000 in 1992, records show.

In McMahons Point, a two-bedroom apartment with views of Sydney Harbour Bridge sold for $1.51 million before a roomful of people.

Guided with a range of $1,175,000 to $1,295,000, the unit at 9/161 Blues Point drew three registrations.

Bidding opened at $1.2 million with two parties that were present at the auction making bids. One bidder was overseas and showed up online but did not make an offer.

Bids quickly traded in $50,000 and $25,000 rises above its $1.35 million reserve to reach $1.45 million.

A little pushing from the auctioneer got a further three bids, $10,000 and $40,000 from a father from McMahons Point bidding on behalf of his son. Then a final $10,000 bid secured the keys for $1.51 million to a buyer from Waverton.

Selling agent Victoria Liu from Stone Crows Nest said people like the “village lifestyle. Downstairs you’ve got beautiful cafes, restaurants, there’s good coffee, and you can walk to the harbour. You can walk to North Sydney. The metro is opening up, so it’s very convenient for people to get around.”

Auctioneer Edward Riley agreed. “When scarcity, walkability and a genuine village ecosystem converge this close to the CBD, buyer competition becomes less about price sensitivity and more about securing a foothold,” he said.

The vendor is an investor from Mosman. The flat last traded for $1.18 million in 2021, records show.

In Bondi, a studio with a separately titled lockup garage guided at $620,000 passed in at auction. The property at 302/212 Bondi Road had eleven contracts out.

Selling agent Cathryn Dudman from The Agency said three were expected who did not show, so there was just one person who made an opening bid of $600,000.

“It was a low bid. And so we went in with the vendor bid and then she was out,” she said.

“So we passed it in at $650,000.”

Dudman said the vendor purchased the studio for $141,000 in 1999 and the garage for $100,000 in 2005. The studio is getting $570 per week in rental income. The reserve was $675,000.

PRD’s chief economist Dr Diaswati Mardiasmo said Domain’s clearance rate of 55 per cent for Sydney is “probably one of the lowest ones that we’ve seen.”

“I think it’s a combination of everything right now translating into the auction market.”

Mardiasmo said, at the moment, “the biggest driver is definitely that financial insecurity and uncertainty.”

She predicted, “There might be a slight pickup after people have done Easter, back from holidays, before the interest rate goes up.”