Sole bidder wins keys to $1.1m beachside apartment as market softens

A woman was the sole bidder for a two-bedroom Cronulla apartment just minutes from North Cronulla Beach, paying $1.1 million at auction on Saturday.

Three bidders, including two first homebuyers, registered to compete for the keys to 17/10-14 Gosport Street, as an initial bid of $850,000 was rejected. A single woman, who had recently sold her investment property in Queensland to fund the purchase, made an opening bid of $1 million. With no further bids, she was invited to bid a further $100,000, and the property sold for $50,000 less than the reserve.

The apartment had a guide of $1 million and a reserve of $1.15 million.

There is no legal requirement for a vendor’s reserve to be in line with their property’s price guide.

The new owner, who has been renting in Cronulla, plans to move into the apartment.

A sales agent for Pulse Property Agents, Luke Lombardi, said it was the fifth property he had sold at auction this week.

“They have been difficult, all of them, but it shows the market is not completely dead,” he said. “Vendors have started to realise [the market] is what it is, and they are adapting to the climate.”

Two weeks on from the federal government’s announced changes to negative gearing, Lombardi said some buyers were hedging their bets to see if prices would weaken further.

“The two buyers I had today were saying they will wait for the next few weeks and months, so there is some hesitation,” he said. “But if you are an active buyer, it’s a good time [to be in the market].”

The property was among 924 scheduled to go to auction in Sydney this week.

In Strathfield, a two-bedroom apartment 500 metres from the station passed in. Two parties registered to bid for the property at 8/70-74 The Boulevarde, but when the auction opened, no one raised their paddles.

The apartment had a guide of $750,000 and a reserve of $800,000.

A sales agent for Richard Matthews Real Estate, Jesse Di Loreto, said there was “a bit of a trend” now for buyers to wait for the property to pass in before negotiating a price.

“We have seen this with a few auctions,” he said. “As soon as the auction is over, everyone wants to have a conversation [to buy]. It’s a little bit frustrating, but it is [now] part of the process.”