Passed in, then sold: Local couple pays $1.46m for North Shore apartment

A local family with a young child paid $1,463,000 for a three-bedroom apartment in Lane Cove after it passed in at auction on Saturday.

Bidding for the property at 2/15 Longueville Road opened at $1.38 million, increasing in bids of $10,000 to reach $1.45 million when bidding stalled and it passed in. The lead bidder was then invited to increase their offer and, after half an hour of negotiating, the property sold.

The apartment had a guide of $1.4 million and a reserve of $1.5 million. There is no legal requirement for a vendor’s reserve to be in line with their property’s price guide.

Two bidders registered, although Raine & Horne Lower North Shore sales agent Oscar Nicholls was initially expecting only one. The underbidder was an investor who had seen the property once early in the campaign and was attracted to it for its yield potential, Nicholls said.

“He got to a point [in the bidding] and said ‘at this price point it doesn’t make any sense’. He has a couple of investments which he is holding because rents are up,” Nicholls said.

The vendor was a single-parent family who bought a four-bedroom home. Nicholls said market conditions were good for upsizers.

“She got a really good deal on what she bought,” he said of the new property.

The property was one of 428 scheduled to go to auction in Sydney on Saturday.

In Bondi Junction, negotiations continued after a two-bedroom art deco apartment passed in at $775,000.

Two parties registered to bid for 2/143 Old South Head Road but just a single bid of $750,000 was placed when the auction opened. The lead bidder, a first home buyer renting in Paddington, was invited to advance on their offer with a further bid of $775,000 before the property passed in.

The apartment, sold as a deceased estate, had a guide of $800,0000 and a reserve of $850,000. It is one of nine apartments in a block positioned between Bellevue Hill and Bondi Junction and features high ornate ceilings, timber fretwork and picture rails, typical of the era.

A sales agent for Ray White Eastern Beaches, Angus Gorrie, expects the property to sell next week.

“It takes a bit more time [to sell in this market], but we had two registered buyers and we are getting close,” he said. “People are out there – the market is better than it was in June.”