Rare Sorrento beach shack sells at auction for $2.5 million
One of the last retro beach shacks in a chic Victorian coastal town has fetched $2.5 million at auction and smashed past the vendor’s price hopes by about $500,000.
Reminiscent of every seaside family holiday house back in the ’70s, the three-bedroom brick cottage at 11 St Pauls Road, Sorrento, sparked a bidding war between 40 registered bidders – each desperate to get their hands on the 673-square-metre block that is within walking distance of the shore.
The home, which last sold in 1977 for $18,000, will soon be bulldozed to make way for a dream house “with all the trimmings”, said selling agent Emil Foller of Jellis Craig Sorrento, in what was a jaw-dropping auction during the gruelling lockdowns.
“It’s an incredible result, and it’s about 20 per cent above what we thought we would get. In fact, the vendor (who has owned the property for 50 years) isn’t quite sure what she’s going to do with the money,” Mr Foller said.
“But homes like this are as rare as hens’ teeth … we only do five to 10 sales like this a year … and there’s no stock, and so the timing was perfect.”
While the Sorrento market continues to soar, Mr Foller said COVID-19 lockdowns had slowed home sales to almost 20 per cent of their usual level.
“We are very quiet at the moment, and because we are still in lockdown, we can’t see potential buyers, so there’s a little bit of stock from winter that we can mop up, but there’s no new stock coming onto the market,” he said.
“The only way we can operate [for new vendors] is if we let the owners take photos of the home themselves. So, we give them instructions on how to take good pictures and then we have them professionally retouched, but that’s the only way we can do it.
“But I think we’re pretty blessed still.”
It was a sentiment felt at the online auction of a three-bedroom house at 1/33 Hare Street, in Fawkner, on Saturday, after 10 registered bidders battled it out over just eight minutes – resulting in a reserve-busting sale price of $637,000.
Ray White Coburg’s Raphael Calik-Houston said the opening bid of $530,000 sparked a chain of quick $10,000 and then $5000 bids, with a first-home-buyer couple pushing past the $610,000 reserve to claim the keys.
“The vendors, who had owned the home for 10 years, were moving to build a larger family home in Melbourne’s west,” Mr Calik-Houston said.
He said while many vendors had decided to hold off selling their homes until October when restrictions are tipped to ease, those who had decided to go ahead were rewarded with less competition.
Across greater Melbourne, 129 homes sold under the hammer on Saturday, with 65 per cent of scheduled properties cleared at auction.
According to the Domain auction report for August, the Victorian capital also reached a record high of $1,193,750 for median house prices at auction, with units also soaring to a new high of $730,000.
However, the report further revealed that clearance rates in the city plunged to 52.5 per cent – which is the lowest rate for the month of August since 2018.
In Sydney, 310 homes sold at auction, from 361 – creating a strong clearance rate of 86 per cent, with just over $341 million in real estate transacting on the day.
The NSW capital achieved its highest clearance rates since Domain records began as a result of skyrocketing buyer demand.
Sydney’s median house prices at auction also climbed to a new record of $1,918,500, Domain’s August auction report showed, with units following the trend after they leapt to $1,113,500.
The insatiable demand has sparked a surge in home prices across the popular suburb of Lugarno, said Hayden Duncan of McGrath – St George, who had two first-home buyers forking out a reserve smashing $1,416,000 for a two-bedroom house at 1180 Forest Road on Saturday.
“The interest on that house was excellent … we issued 30 contracts prior, and the opening bid was just above the reserve [of $1.2 million],” he said.
“I think you could see a few defeated faces on Zoom after that … but it was a phenomenal outcome, and the vendors were so excited. That’s the first time the home was on the market … and it was built in 1955.
“That home was also assessed 12 months ago at $1 million.”
Over at 4 Gwynellen Place, in Cherrybrook, a four-bedroom brick house on a 782-square-metre block broke the suburb house-price record for a single-level home after it fetched $2,175,000 under the virtual hammer.
Selling agent Greg Nicolson of Louis Carr Real Estate said their agency set the previous record a month ago, which revealed just how much buyers were willing to pour into bricks and mortar.
“This result is probably $200,000 more than this house would have fetched this time last year, but as unbelievable as it sounds, based on the current pace of growth, our buyers may very well be $200,000 up this time next year,” Mr Nicolson said.
“So long as you’re not too quick to drop the hammer, in many instances, the online auctions [also] seem to be empowering bidders.”
Mr Nicolson said the home collected $75,000 above the reserve after the eventual winners, a young family upgrading from a unit, threw down a $15,000 bid to shake off the other nine buyers.
“Our seller was literally in tears over the phone after the auction,” he said.
Up in Brisbane, 49 homes sold under the hammer for a 73 per cent clearance rate.
Of those, a meticulously renovated Queenslander at 33 Katoomba Avenue, Hawthorne, fetched the highest price of the day after a local family forked out $2.6 million for the five-bedroom house that last sold in 2016 for $1,575,000.
Selling agent Paula Pearce of Place Estate Agents Bulimba said the home’s layout, 736-square-metre block size, and the blue-chip location ensured strong interest, with five buyers bidding on the day.
“It was a strong weekend and we were super busy. As an office, we had seven auctions and six of them sold, and at my open homes, I had new properties launch with 26 groups [on average] at each one,” Ms Pearce said.
“The market is still as busy as it has ever been … and Sydney and Melbourne buyers are pushing prices up.”
While interstate home hunters are fuelling price growth and demand across Brisbane’s roaring housing sector, it’s locals leading the charge on prestige apartments, Adcock Prestige principal Jason Adcock said.
He collected $1,855,000 for a “rare” three-bedroom luxury unit in South Brisbane on Saturday, at 11/10 Lower River Terrace, after local empty-nesters claimed the keys in front of a crowd of about 100.
“This unit is in the same building in which [famed hairstylist] Stefan Ackerie has owned the penthouse [for decades] … and apartments here come up very rarely. In fact, some people have owned them since they bought theirs off the plan 38 years ago,” Mr Adcock said.
“It’s north-facing, and the views to the river are some of the best in Brisbane … and then you’ve got the ferry terminal right out the front.
“So, the interest was absolutely incredible … but it’s at an all-time high for buyer inquiry right now [in the high-end unit sector], and local empty nesters are the prime demographic.”
According to the Domain August Auction Report, clearance rates across the Queensland capital reached an average of 60.1 per cent – which is the highest on record for the city.
The median house price remained near its record high of $990,000, with units earning a stable $557,500.
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