A Mosman mother paid $2.51 million for an unrenovated Crows Nest semi in a conservation area at auction on Saturday, $610,000 above its reserve.
The four-bedroom home with two entrances at 146 Chandos Street had a price guide and reserve of $1.9 million.
The property was one of 784 scheduled auctions in Sydney last week. By Saturday evening, Domain Group had recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 78.4 per cent from 459 reported results, while 68 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.
Eight parties registered and five actively bid on the brick home in Crows Nest. Buyers were a mix of investors and young families, some with parents in tow.
Bidding opened at $1,725,000 and went up in a flurry of increments, ranging from $75,000 to $1000 for half an hour in the sweltering afternoon, until it sold under the hammer.
Selling agent Victoria Liu of Richardson & Wrench North Sydney said: “You can’t knock it down. It’s sort of like a project home for people to buy and renovate.
“I think it stands out because it’s a good-sized block, 335 square metres, and you’ve got the entrance at the front and another entrance at the back. So people might be able to separate it into two separate premises.”
Auctioneer Ed Riley, of the eponymous agency, said: “Even amid interest-rate fluctuations, buyer confidence in Sydney property remains … driven by those who understand its long-term fundamentals.”
In Ashbury, a three-bedroom home at 39 Melville Street, which did not sell during a four-week campaign in November, sold just under the vendor’s expectations by $25,000, for $2,625,000.
Last year, the seller was guiding between $2.7 million to $2.8 million, but there were no bidders at auction.
After the summer break, the price was adjusted down with a $2.5 million guide, and two new buyers registered and actively bid for the home.
The opening bid was $2.4 million. Bidding reached $2,575,000, then the final three bids were all from the highest bidder.
A bid of $2.6 million, then another $20,000 and a final $5000 bid, sealed the deal for $2,625,000, $25,000 below the $2.65 million written auction reserve.
There is no legal requirement for a vendor’s reserve to be in line with their property’s price guide.
Selling agent Marco Errichiello of Rich & Oliva said talk around interest rates had “taken a little bit of pep out of the market – people’s enthusiasm. They’re still there to buy it, but they won’t pay a premium.”
“I don’t feel we’ve lost any buyers. I feel that they’re just being a little bit more conservative in their pricing,” he said.
Errichiello said Ashbury was “popular with young families. They like the quietness and the access to the schools and parks and the quality of the homes, and they feel it’s good value in comparison to neighbouring suburbs.”
The buyer was upsizing from Croydon Park. The vendor has bought and upsized within Ashbury.
AMP chief economist Dr Shane Oliver said Domain’s clearance rate of 78.4 per cent for Sydney was “quite strong”.
“History tells us that rate hikes do have a bit of a dampening impact on the property market. But … we’ve got a higher cost of borrowing, which makes it harder for people to get in, but on the other hand, we have a chronic shortage of property in Sydney,” Oliver said.
“So it’s not necessarily the case that rate hikes will immediately depress things, but my feeling would be that it will slow as the year progresses, particularly if the Reserve Bank raises interest rates further.”
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