‘Like pulling teeth’: 50-minute auction ends with $1,725,000 purchase

A first homebuyer bought a renovated two-bedroom townhouse in Fairlight for $1,725,000 following a drawn out 50-minute auction on Saturday.

Seven bidders registered to raise their paddles for 2/14 Austin Street, which has two bathrooms and undercover parking for two cars. Three bidders were active.

Bidding for the property opened at $1.5 million, below the guide of $1.6 million, with initial increments of $20,000, followed by a series of bids of $5000, $1000 and $10,000.

“It was like pulling teeth,” said Cunninghams Real Estate sales agent Georgi Bates.

When bidding reached $1,695,000, the bidder, a first homebuyer supported by his dad, was asked to bid against himself, which he did, raising the bid to $1.71 million. Another bidder then entered the fray, offering a further $1000. However, two more $1000 bids and she was out.

Bates said she had a third bidder on the phone from London, who was travelling on the tube during the auction.

“[He made an offer and] I was prepared to negotiate with [him] next week,” she said.

Instead, the first homebuyer made a final bid of $1,725,000 – the same as the reserve – and the auction ended.

Another bidder, who had registered while on holiday in Sicily, did not bid.

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

The vendors are upsizing locally to accommodate their growing family.

Bates said the turnkey nature of the property, as well as undercover parking, made it an attractive purchase.

“It was a lovely property, but this is the market now,” she said. “Even getting an opening bid was a challenge, but [this result] shows there are buyers out there, particularly under that $3 million price point.”

The property was one of 624 scheduled to go to auction in Sydney this week.

In Lilyfield, a two-storey, four-bedroom home passed in with a vendor’s bid of $2.95 million.

BresicWhitney Inner West sales agents Chris Nunn said there were no registrations for 5 Ryan Street, although one interested party, a local family, was present.

Nunn said negotiations with that party would continue into next week. The property now has a sale price of $2.99 million.

It was originally listed with a price guide of $2.9 million and had a reserve of $2.99 million.

The vendor is moving overseas.

Nunn said the result demonstrated the unpredictability of the current market.

“There are properties [we’ve sold] where you go, ‘Wow, that rocketed’. We have had [properties] in the past two weeks that people have been vying to buy and others where people are engaging and then dropping off.”