Auctioneer shocked as stunning Paddington cottage passes in at $990,000

Space Property principal and auctioneer Nick Penklis couldn’t believe 31 Herbert Street was passed in.

The three-bedroom house was a stunning, modern take on a classic style, he said.

“I love the style, it has that 1950s modernist feel to it,” said Mr Penklis. “I think you can explore further avenues like adding to it, extending and maximising on the side.”

Despite an auction with nearly two dozen bids, Mr Penklis got the best from the buyers at $961,000. After consulting the vendor, he placed a vendor bid of $990,000, which he said was close to what would have been a fair price for the renovated cottage. It was passed in at that price. 

“One million dollars, I think it’s fair value,” he said. “The land’s level, it is three bedrooms and small, but the living area’s fabulous and you can’t knock the location.”

The property attracted a lot of interest, so Mr Penklis had expected to sell at auction.

“Five registered bidders and three bidding very spiritedly,” he said after the auction. “We got an indication but I think there’s a bit more in them yet.”

Buyers who were not able to bid at auction were there waiting in the wings, he said.

“There were a couple of conditional buyers who were present today, but I’m sure they’ll start speaking with [selling agent Judi O’Dea] immediately,” Mr Penklis said.

Ms O’Dea said the house was emotionally important to the vendors, who were only moving because of work. “They’ve already done things important to them, they’ve spent lots of money on the dining and the lounge area.”

She agreed with Mr Penklis’ assessment that more could be done to the contemporary cottage.

“You could extend or build up another storey,” she noted. “It’s got great potential, but it’s already sophisticated. There’s not many places like this on the market around Paddington.”

In Hendra, the buyer of 10 Dora Street was left feeling “nauseous” after dropping $2.1 million at auction to buy the property.

“To be honest, sick. But good, good nausea,” said the buyer, who declined to be named. “We’ve been looking for a while and this house is turnkey ready, ready to move into.

“It’s what we’ve been looking for.”

Slightly overcast weather made Ray White Ascot agent Janelle McKenna a bit nervous leading into the auction. “Brisbane people tend to be a little bit funny about rain, they see a bit of rain and they don’t go out,” she said.  

But Ms Mckenna need not have worried. Despite a smaller-than average crowd, the expansive five-bedroom house still sold under the hammer.

Bidding was short and sharp. The winning bidder made an aggressive starting bid, $300,000 under the final selling price and it only took four bids to reach $2.1 million.

“I’d been looking at the market and what it had been doing and it seemed like a good price point,” she said. “For what we thought, we added it up and did the figures and $2.1 million seemed to come in at … well, we didn’t want to pay much more than $2.05 million to be honest.”

But the new owners were still happy with their new home, a spacious and open Queenslander in Hendra’s heart. They planned to make use of the separation of living areas to keep their two children, in their early teens, at an arm’s length, they said.

Later on Saturday in Balmoral, a renovation opportunity on a 607-square metre block sold under the hammer to an absentee young couple. 

The new owners were on holidays and had someone bid on their behalf; nabbing 17 Walkers Drive for $776,000.

Place Bulimba agent Brenton Faehrmann said the seven registered bidders were not prepared to give the three-bedroom home up without a fight. “We had up around 40 bids, it was very fast paced and exciting.”

Mr Faehrmann said the house sold well and the vendors were pleased with the sale.

“They’re ecstatic, a great result and they were really happy with who it sold too.”