Hordes of buyers defy Sydney storms to bid on homes

Torrential rain was not enough to keep desperate buyers away from Sydney auctions on Saturday, with many properties attracting hordes of bidders and selling for bullish prices.

One of those was a 1960s-era bungalow in Turramurra that had 30 groups register to bid, and sold to a couple from Mt Colah for $1.83 million – $220,000 more than the reserve. 

Another in Mosman, a two-bedroom house with water views, had 10 groups sign up before the auction. It sold for $2.29 million – $290,000 above the reserve – to buyers who, like those at the Turramurra house, plan to knock it down.

These were among 548 auctions held on the wettest Saturday so far this year.  By early evening Domain Group had collected 377 results and put the clearance rate at 80.1 per cent.

Domain Group’s chief economist Dr Andrew Wilson said bad weather failed to dampen the result. “It’s a clearly strengthening Sydney market fuelled by lower interest rates and rising investor numbers,” he said. “The winter market has started on a roll driven by three strong results over the past four weekends.”

Savills agent Ross Mundy, who sold the Turramurra house, said there was no shortage of people looking for homes in his patch of the upper north shore.

“There’s definitely a large pool of buyers looking for good property,” he said. “So as long as the sellers are reasonable every house has a very good opportunity in this market.”

Bidding on the Turramurra house opened at $1.62 million, higher than the reserve price, and so full was the house that auctioneer Craig Marshall had bidders calling out from several rooms, and spilling out on to the lawn under umbrellas.

The eventual buyers, Kathy and Steve Schmidt of Mt Colah, had been looking for a house in the Turramurra area for seven years, so when this one came up with its 1000 square metres on a wide, corner block, they were not going to be put off by rain.

“This is a great suburb and we plan to be for a long time,” said Mr Schmidt. “When you find a block you like you go for it.”

Several suburbs away in West Pennant Hills, there was a similar frenzy at the auction of a five-bedroom house in Maranatha Close. So popular had it been that the agent, Melanie Mun of Merc Real Estate, auctioned it two weeks early. Six bidders pushed the price to $2,360,500 – $385,500 more than the reserve.

“Sydney’s market is still incredibly robust, and with low stock levels in many areas, quality homes in the north west continue to be in high demand,” said the auctioneer Stu Benson, of Benson Auctions.

In Mosman, 10 groups were hoping to buy the Modernist house by the architect A.W. Cozens that overlooks Quakers Hat Bay. It was commissioned by the late Stella Tottenham, an editor of the cult national architecture magazine Architecture, 60 years ago but most groups had eyes only for the view.

South of the city, a young Sutherland Shire family beat eight other bidders for a 1970s brick-veneer house at 3 Prairievale Road, in South Hurstville -paying $1,822,000 – which was $322,000 more than the reserve. Andre Levrault, of Gavan Property St George, had issued 20 contracts on the 670-square-metre property.

A similarly bullish result was reported in North Sydney, where downsizers from the upper north shore forked out  $370,000 more than the reserve for a renovated semi at 4 Carlow Street. The $2.42 million price for the three-level property on 200 square metres was too much for five other bidders. Belle Property Neutral Bay’s Mark Jackson had shown 205 groups through in the weeks leading up to the auction.

In Woollahra an investor beat two other bidders for a two-bedroom, north-east-facing apartment on Ocean Street, paying $1,205,000 – $205,000 more than the reserve. Shaun Poche, of Phillips Pantzer Donnelley, had 134 groups inspect it before auction day.