Storybook Erskineville house sells for over $1.92m to local first home buyer

A first home buyer secured the keys to an ivy-covered contemporary redesigned home in Erskineville for $1,925,000 at auction on Saturday.

The storybook charm of 34 Flora Street had the appeal of a gingerbread cottage, with its exposed brick and cosy courtyard drawing seven registered bidders – three of whom were first home buyers and just one of which was an investor.

Bidding for the two-bedroom house opened at $1.75 million, which was already $50,000 above its $1.7 million reserve.

A flurry of bids in varying increments were fired between three active bidders – a local first-home buyer, a bidder from the north shore and one from the eastern suburbs.

It sold under the hammer within five minutes for $1,925,000 to the first home buyer from Erskineville.

Selling agent Nick Playfair from BresicWhitney Inner West said the initial price guide of $1.5 million was lifted to $1.6 million a week into the campaign.

“I feel like the market’s in a good place, as long as things are priced fairly,” he said.

“I think it’s pretty hard to find a house this renovated in this price profile. You don’t normally find something like this offered.”

The vendor had done a complete transformation, including adding an extra bedroom, after purchasing the raw shell of the property for $720,000 in 2019, records show.

The property was one of 1038 scheduled auctions in Sydney last week.

By Saturday evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 53 per cent from 536 reported results throughout the week, while 179 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.

In Mascot, a three-bedroom double brick house guided at $2.1 million sold for $2,451,000, after drawing eight registered bidders.

The home at 8 Oliver Street attracted six young families seeking to move in, and two mum and dad investors purchasing for their adult children.

Six bidders were active for the large block. All were upsizers looking to renovate the deceased estate.

Bidding opened at $2 million and climbed in $50,000, $20,000, $10,000, $5000 and $1000 increments before selling for $201,000 above its $2,250,000 reserve.

Selling agent Chris Skarlatos from The Agency said, “It was a good one.”

“Investors are very cautious … the game’s changed for them, so they’re basically only looking at things that are positively geared. There’s no interest in things like this that will need a lot of investment to uplift them.”

He said he was only seeing owner-occupiers, especially for houses.

“The unit market has a bit more [investment] around, because the returns are better, but the house market has really seen them disappear,” Skarlatos said.

The buyer is from Kingsgrove.

In Granville, four first home buyers registered for the auction of a rundown three-bedroom deceased estate at 9 Heath Street, which sold for $1.19 million under the hammer.

Bidding opened at $900,000 and climbed in $50,000, $20,000 and $10,000 rises before coming to a close.

The result was $10,000 below its $1.2 million guide and $60,000 below its $1.25 million reserve.

LJ Hooker’s Soon Tee thought the auction showed the proposed changes to negative gearing have already affected the market, noting that the property didn’t have the benefits of being a new property and no investors had registered.

“[It’s] an affordable area. We’re pretty central … close to the Parramatta CBD. Granville was a popular hub because of the Granville station … it’s a main stop,” he said.

The buyer is a newlywed from Guildford, and will renovate.

In Maroubra, a four-bedroom house with a swimming pool at 8 The Causeway passed in on a $3.45 million bid, matching its guide.

The two-storey home had a $3.6 million reserve and just one registered bidder.

Selling agent Elicia Murray from The Agency said, they’d issued eight contracts in the final week of the campaign.

“A few of those buyers told us that they were nervous about selling and they had less confidence to bid, and I think that’s a reflection of where we are in the market,” she said.

She said the home’s “fabulous location” in the northern pocket of Maroubra, as well as its large block, meant it had “enormous potential, but was also very livable”.

AMP’s chief economist Dr Shane Oliver said Sydney’s 53 per cent clearance rate was “soft.”

He said buyer demand was being depressed by a combination of higher interest rates, poor affordability, low levels of confidence, uncertainty due to the war in Iran, fuel prices and the negative impact of the budget on investors.

“It’s a bit of a perfect storm,” he said.

“Investor demand is likely to be weak … for some time until investors see either higher rents or lower prices.”

He expected it to be a difficult winter, one that was probably already coming “before the budget came along, but the tax changes have perhaps made it more difficult”.