Family pays $3.7 million for St Kilda West home
A distinctive Welsh Terrace home in St Kilda West sold for $3,725,000 in post-auction negotiations on Saturday, after passing in at $3,675,000.
The four-bedroom, four-bathroom family home at 23 Mary Street, within walking distance of St Kilda Beach and Catani Gardens, was guided at $3.2 million to $3.5 million.
It was one of 943 auctions scheduled in Melbourne this week. By evening, Domain Group had recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 75.1 per cent from 719 reported results throughout the week, while 53 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.
The auction in St Kilda West opened with a $3.4 million vendor bid, followed by the first buyer’s bid of $3,425,000. It looked like the home would pass in when a couple bid $3.45 million just as Marshall White Port Phillip lead agent and auctioneer Oliver Bruce was about to end the auction.
From there, the two bidders battled it out until the auction passed in at $3,675,000. The highest bidder – a south-east Melbourne family that had “always wanted to buy into Mary Street”, according to Bruce – then entered post-auction negotiations.
“We had another buyer get involved after the auction,” Bruce said. In the end, the family with the highest bid bought the house for $3,725,000. One source familiar with the sale said the reserve was $3,725,000, but Bruce declined to confirm the reserve.
There is no legal requirement for a vendor’s reserve to be in line with their property’s price guide.
The underbidders were expats returning to Australia after living overseas, Bruce said.
Bruce said the market had been positive. “We saw the signs of the market moving probably around the first quarter,” he said.
In Essendon, a luxurious five-bedroom home sold under the hammer for $3.04 million after the vendors decided to postpone the first auction in June.
Listed with a price guide of $2.55 million to $2.75 million, the house at 46 Market Street was first slated to go to auction in June, but a slow campaign convinced the owners to wait a few months before trying again, said Christian Lonzi, Jellis Craig Moonee Valley lead agent and auctioneer.
“June was very quiet, and we just made a decision to rest it and wait for maybe another interest rate cut,” he said. “After that came, the campaign completely turned around and went from one person interested to five.”
On the day, three out of the five interested parties bid. Lonzi paused the auction to consult the vendor at a $2.6 million bid. “I was told to work a little harder – we weren’t quite there,” he said. After a few more bids, the house was on the market at $2.8 million, but bids kept rolling in.
Lonzi said the buyers were a couple downsizing from a regional property; the underbidders were a young couple looking to get into the area.
“I feel like we might be on the cusp of an improvement in sentiment in the market,” Lonzi said.
Earlier, a mature couple paid $1,151,500 for a free-standing villa unit in Bentleigh, bidding $231,500 over reserve at Saturday’s auction.
The two-bedroom, one-bathroom home at 2/6 Jeffrey Street, guided at $900,000 to $930,000, attracted a mixed pool of bidders, including downsizers and first home buyers.
“Two daughters bid for their parents, who are in their 60s and looking to downsize,” said Buxton Real Estate Bentleigh’s lead agent Simon Pintado. The underbidder was a second home buyer couple looking to upsize from an apartment. Three parties bid in total.
The auction opened with a $900,000 bid, and quickly surpassed the reserve of $920,000. The vendor, an orchestra conductor moving overseas, bought the home in 1995 for $141,500 and was happy with the result, Pintado said.
Confidence in the market has gone up in the last month, he added, “and is probably up 50 per cent from what it was a few weeks back”.
“It’s a downward trajectory for rates, but also people are realising that Melbourne is undervalued compared to other major cities around Australia, and that will probably be the start of a three to five-year growth cycle,” he said.
In nearby Hampton, another two-bedroom villa unit sold under the hammer for $1,071,000 to first home buyers, represented by an advocate.
The home at 1/223 Thomas Street featuring a study and privately hedged front garden attracted two bidders – the first home buyers and an investor, also represented by an advocate.
It opened with a bid of $950,000 by the investor, said lead Marshall White agent Ewan Bennett.
“The bidding was competitive, with the first home buyer winning in the end,” Bennett said. The home was guided at $900,000 to $990,000, and had a reserve price of $980,000.
While Bennett has not seen any major changes in the market recently, he said buyers were realising there were good value opportunities out there.
“They are certainly prepared to either invest or spend the money needed to buy into the market due to the belief that because rates are going down, there will no longer be the risk of their property devaluing after purchase,” he said.
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