North Melbourne Townhouse Sells for $896,000 After Three-Way Auction Fight
A local couple paid $896,000 for a North Melbourne townhouse after outbidding two other first home buyer couples at auction. The agent said price-sensitive first home buyers are still buying despite cash rate rises, while a Surrey Hills house sold for $2.26 million.
A local couple paid $896,000 for a two-bedroom townhouse at 2/60 Courtney Street in North Melbourne at auction, outbidding two other couples of price-sensitive first home buyers, agents said.
The split-level home spreads across three levels. It has a garage room, a bathroom and an open-plan living room that opens onto a terrace.
Bidding opened at $770,000, below the $820,000 reserve. Independent auctioneer Jack Cooper accepted it but asked for the next offer to be "somewhere in the 800,000s".
He instead got a bid of $2000, which he declined. "I wanted a little higher given the guide," he told a silent crowd.
A second bidder then offered $820,000. Bids of $1000 to $10,000 followed until $851,000, when a third bidder joined. The second and third bidders pushed on to $896,000, where the second bidder stopped.
Buyers and vendors
Zach Sianos, lead agent at Jellis Craig Kensington, said the winners were a local couple looking to upsize. The underbidders were a young first home buyer couple whose father bid on their behalf.
The sellers were a family with young children who had bought the house as their own first home and outgrown it.
Sianos said first home buyer properties were still selling despite the cash rate increases. "It's just price-sensitive ... properties with sensible reserves are still performing well," he said.
"Properties under a million dollars have got some good momentum at the moment." The townhouse was one of 676 homes scheduled for auction in Melbourne this week.
Higher-priced homes
In Surrey Hills, in Melbourne's east, an Edwardian house at 14 Norris Street sold for $200,000 above its $2.06 million reserve. A couple beat three other bidders.
The four-bedroom home has coloured leadlight glass, an arched hallway and high ceilings. Julian Papas, lead agent at Marshall White Boroondara, said bidding began with a vendor's bid of $1.9 million, then a genuine bid of $1.92 million.
The first two bidders, both owner-occupiers, raised in $20,000 steps, then $10,000. A third bidder joined at $2 million and bids rose in $5000 steps until a final offer of $2.26 million won.
The buyers are a family with adult children who own a home on the Bellarine Peninsula. They plan to split their time between Melbourne and the Bellarine, Papas said.
The underbidder was a downsizer moving from a larger parcel of land in the eastern suburbs. Papas said the vendor refinished the floors, laid new carpets and repainted, which drew a much larger pool of buyers.
In Balaclava, a brand-new four-bedroom house at 50 Rosamond Street passed in on a vendor's bid of $2 million. Its reserve was $2.2 million.
Will Hocking, lead agent at Melbourne Sotheby's International Realty Stonnington, said the auction drew a local investor and Queenslanders looking to relocate. He plans to speak to interested parties and look to re-auction the house before the end of the year.
