Eastern suburbs apartment sells for $62k over reserve in hot auction

A first home buyer couple paid $982,000 for a sunny two-bedroom apartment in Kensington on Saturday, $62,000 more than the reserve.

Twelve groups registered to bid for the property at 8/37 Kensington Road – nine more groups than initially expected – with five taking part. Bidding opening at $820,000 and rose in increments of $5000 and $10,000 before slipping to offers of $1000 until the hammer fell.

The property had a guide of $880,000 and a reserve of $920,000.

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

The successful bidders have been renting locally. The underbidder was also a first home buyer who attended the auction with his parents. The vendors have held the property as an investment.

Ray White Eastern Beaches sales agent Ty Demirezen said higher rents and a softer market had incentivised more first home buyers to make the move into ownership.

“Rising rents and lowering [property] prices have given people sitting on the fence the push,” he said.

“Anything in the sub $1.5 million range, that is where the action is in the east. Those properties are doing really well, as long as they don’t have anything wrong with them, like being dark or strata issues.

“No one wants to pay high levies on top of mortgage repayments.”

The property was one of 512 scheduled to go to auction in Sydney this week.

In West Pymble, a young family from the Hills district won the keys to a three-bedroom brick home with a wide 18.288m frontage, paying $2,038,000 – $163,000 above the reserve.

Six parties registered to bid for the home at 37 Bolwarra Avenue, with three active. Bidding opened at $1.7 million and bids increased by $50,000 and $25,000 before dropping back to $20,000, $10,000 and finally $8000 before the hammer fell.

The property had a guide of $1.8 million and a reserve of $1,875,000.

The Marshall Group sales agent Ahmad Basam said the underbidders were young couples and families attracted by the home’s convenience to schools, shops and transport. He said it was a good entry point for a house in the area but was not necessarily indicative of the overall state of the market.

“The market is segmented,” Basam said. “Anything under $2.5 million, there is good interest and new [vendors] coming into the market now are more aligned.”