Source : the age
A first home buyer couple paid $102,500 over the reserve for a three-bedroom house in Airport West, outbidding three other first home buyers at Saturday’s action.
The family home at 102 Halsey Road had a price guide of $700,000 to $770,000, and records show it last sold for $565,000 in 2019. On Saturday, it sold under the hammer for $872,500.
The property was among 1245 scheduled to go to auction in Melbourne this week.
Led by auctioneer and former Essendon football player Jason Johnson, who the vendors specifically requested due to their support for the club, proceedings began with a $700,000 genuine bid, going up in $10,000 and odd-number increments, said Jellis Craig Moonee Valley lead agent Lara Harris.
“There were also some knockout bids, with people going up in $15,000 increments to knock the other buyer out,” she said. The reserve was $770,000.
The buyers were a young couple from Southbank “sick of apartment living”, Harris said, who had once lived in the area and wanted to come back. The underbidders were also a young, first home buyer couple.
Harris said the market was particularly strong below the $1 million mark.
“There’s a lot of first home buyers in the market, and anything priced sub-$1 million is moving really well,” she said.
Investors, however, have been in short supply.
“It’s more investors selling than investors buying now,” Harris said.
In Yarraville, in the inner-west, a “cheeky” bidder won the keys to a two-bedroom townhouse with a $931,000 offer, outbidding a first-home buyer couple.
The light-filled home at 13 Canterbury Street, featuring glossy timber floors and a north-facing courtyard, was listed with a price guide of $775,000 to $850,000. It had a reserve of $850,000.
Village Real Estate auctioneer and lead agent Joseph Luppino said the opening bid was a “little bit cheeky, a little bit low” at $700,000, and was followed by a vendor bid of $800,000.
“Then that same buyer came back in at $810,000, and it went back and forth between them and a new buyer who entered at $820,000 for a while, before it sold back to the guy that opened up the bid at $700,000,” he said.
The buyer was a young man who had been looking to buy a property for five years, Luppino said.
