Neighbour pays $1.68m for unit with garage, beating five first home buyers
A three-bedroom art deco apartment in Waverley was snapped up by an upstairs neighbour for $1.68 million at auction on Saturday, giving them ownership of half of the building and garage access.
As a ground floor unit, the property at 2/4 Kent Street came with one of only two lock-up garages in a boutique block of four.
The eastern suburbs property was one of 796 scheduled to go to auction in Sydney last week. By Saturday evening, Domain recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 48 per cent from 481 reported results throughout the week, while 177 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.
Although the early result is a fall of five percentage points from last week’s preliminary reading, it remains just above the low of 47 per cent it reached in June as buyers stepped back following the May budget’s changes to the tax treatment of investment properties.
Six parties registered for the Waverley unit, five were first home buyers, and all except one participated.
Bidding opened at $1.4 million, below its $1,585,000 guide and rose in $25,000, $5000 and $1000 increments.
When nobody budged despite further attempts to secure more bids, it sold under the hammer for $80,000 above its $1.6 million reserve for $1.68 million. There is no legal requirement for a vendor’s reserve to be in line with their property’s price guide.
McGrath’s Charles Stevens said that, other than the upstairs neighbour, the auction didn’t draw any investors.
“The two downstairs apartments, both have garages, and then the two upstairs don’t have a garage,” Stevens said. “The majority of people coming through were in the first home buyer category … we had 12 people who came back for more than one inspection.”
“You can see the ocean from the sunroom,” he added.
The vendors are an investor sibling pair. The flat last traded for $520,000, since 2002, records show.
In Drummoyne, a waterfront apartment with Sydney Harbour views at 12/74 Wrights Road sold for $2,161,000.
Ten people registered for the three-bedroom apartment which had no guide. Buyers were mostly downsizers, and two were builders seeking to renovate and flip.
Five were active in the ring. Bidding opened at $1.8 million and a $100,000 offer instantly took the price above its $1.85 million reserve, so it was announced as on the market. There were a flurry of bids in large and small increments until it sold for $311,000 above reserve for $2,161,000.
Ray White’s Mario Carbone said it was a no guide campaign under instructions from the solicitors, “because it had to be sold, it was a deceased estate”. He said that buyer feedback was between $1.5 million and $1.7 million.
Carbone said the waterfront home drew the interest of downsizers due to its lift access.
“We’re having good numbers through our open homes, but buyers are still proceeding with an element of caution because of everything that’s happening in the economy,” he said.
“When buyers see value, they will come, they will compete and they will purchase.”
The buyer is a local downsizer.
Nearby, a well maintained Stanmore terrace at 82 Northumberland Avenue drew three registrations. Two competed for the Federation style inner west two bedder.
Initially, the property was guided at $1.65 million, but then lifted to $1.7 million midway through its campaign.
Bidding opened at $1.69 million with $10,000 bids dished out quickly for most of the rapid auction before it sold above its reserve for $1,872,000 to a buyer from Canberra. The underbidder is looking to upsize from an apartment.
Ray White’s Matt Carvalho said it “was quite a strong auction in terms of bidding. It was really just two people that just fought it out.
“A lot of other auctions are … holding back, whereas this was actually a competitive fast auction, which was nice to see,” he said.
The investment property was held for 20 years. It last traded for $585,000 in 2006, records show.
LJ Hooker’s head of research Mathew Tiller said Domain’s clearance rate of 48 per cent for Sydney was “not a good start” to the spring selling season.
“We’re not seeing as much listing activity at the start of spring as we would normally see at this time of year.”
He said properties were sitting on the market for a little bit longer now. “Those who aren’t under pressure to list have begun to hold off a little bit to see how the market pans out,” he said.
“We probably just have to get through the RBA decision the week after next. If that’s a hold, then it will probably be OK for spring. If it is an increase, then it will obviously dent buyer confidence again.”
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