A recent Bondi seller paid $5.7 million for a dream home with ocean views for his sweetheart in Little Bay at auction on Saturday.
Four people registered to bid and three made offers on the six-bedroom home at 60 Gubbuteh Road.
Bidding opened at $4.5 million. Bids were placed rapidly between two parties up to $5.3 million and then the house was on the market at $5.4 million, which was when the third bidder and final buyer stepped into the ring. Bidding went above the $5.4 million reserve until $5.7 million secured it for a couple who had recently sold in Bondi.
The property last traded for $3.4 million in 2015, records show.
It was one of 676 homes scheduled to go under the hammer in Sydney on the weekend. By evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 73 per cent from 419 reported results, while 81 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.
Selling agent Charles Yuanchao Pei from Ray White Norwest said the buyer was purchasing a dream house with ocean views for his sweetheart and considered the 20-minute drive from Bondi reasonable. Meanwhile, the vendor who sold in the morning bought another property, a downsizing duplex, in the afternoon.
The four-bedroom duplex located at 20a Hume Street in Chifley sold for $3,190,000 after four bidders battled it out at 1pm from an opening bid of $2.7 million. It was sold by Peter Goulding from NGFarah.
Elsewhere, a 99-year-old vendor sold her home at 1 Miramont Avenue in Riverview she had owned for 70 years.
Nine people registered and five actively bid on the family home. The original property, untouched since the 1950s, was guided at $2.5 million and sold above its $2.9 million reserve for $3.64 million.
“Fifty per cent of my buyers were wanting to start again and 50 per cent were wanting to renovate the existing home,” Stewart Kirkby from LJ Hooker Lane Cove said.
AMP Capital chief economist Dr Shane Oliver said the clearance rate of 73 per cent looks unseasonal and could be an increase in distressed selling or a move to take advantage of higher prices that are driving a pick-up in listings.
Oliver believes the recent streak is probably unsustainable. “To get a sustained, strong upswing in the property market, you probably need to see lower interest rates, and that looks to be a fair way off,” he said.
“We do have strong levels of immigration, we have a very tight property market and low vacancy rates. So, they’re all the positives. But working against that is the fact that interest rates are still high.”
A three-bedroom terrace located at 8 Watkin Street in Newtown sold for $2,400,000. The Victorian home was owned by the same family for 50 years.
Three people registered and bid on the terrace guided at $2 million. Bidding opened at $1.9 million with mostly $50,000 bids getting across the line.
Selling agent Adrian Tsavalas from Adrian William declined to share the reserve but said the No.8 of the address was a drawcard as well as the length of time the previous owners held on to the property.
The buyers were interstate investors with a long-term goal to make the move from Melbourne to Sydney.
A four-bedroom house at 4 Hartley Street in Rozelle was aggressively contested at auction, selling for $480,000 above its $3.7 million reserve.
Twelve people registered and seven actively bid. Bidding opened at $3,729,000 with $50,000 bids taking the action to $4 million.
Bids dropped to $10,000 and it was a fast and furious 10 minutes until the final sale price of $4,180,000 was achieved.
The balcony and garden was full of onlookers and the crowd of 70 included children doing cartwheels on the artificial grass. The buyer was a young local family.
Selling agent Cindy Kennedy from McGrath Balmain said the home ticked all the boxes.
“It had a studio above the garage. So, that meant for teenagers or working from home with its own access from the street behind that huge garden. And then the accommodation had three bedrooms and an office on the same level. And then two living areas on the ground level. It has all been designed to maximise the north-easterly light.”
A stunning six-bedroom penthouse apartment in Cronulla sold prior to auction for a whopping $13 million after only 10 days on the market.
Guided between $13 million to $15 million, a local buyer made an offer that was accepted by the vendor looking to downsize. The sale was first reported by The Australian.
Selling agent Laura McKay from Highland Sutherland Shire & St George said good properties are still selling really well.
“As far as really good properties in the prestige market, we’re finding they’re few and far between as far as getting the properties to sell. So when we do get our hands on them, enquiries are really strong,” she said.