Source : the age
A local family upsizing from an apartment bought a semi in Bondi for $3.5 million at auction on Saturday when they were the only ones to bid.
Two parties registered to bid for 6 Miller Street, a three-bedroom semi, but only one was active, making an opening bid of $3.4 million.
After some negotiation, the bidder, the local family, increased their offer to $3.5 million and the home sold under the hammer. A second registered bidder, who was on the phone, was a local who had sold a property earlier in the year but didn’t bid. A third person advised at the last minute that they would not be attending.
“I had one registered bidder saying they would buy it on Monday, and they missed that opportunity,” McGrath Double Bay sales agent James Ledgerwood said.
“Some buyers are sitting back assuming they will have something to negotiate post-auction.”
The two-storey property has been fully renovated and has a north-facing backyard. It was one of 444 properties scheduled to go to auction in Sydney this Saturday.
The home, which was a deceased estate, had a guide of $3.5 million, in line with the reserve. Ledgerwood said more than 50 groups had been through the property during the campaign.
Following buyer feedback, the guide was adjusted from $3.85 million to $3.5 million about 10 days before the auction.
“At $3.5 million, that’s where we got engagement with buyers,” he said.
In Pennant Hills a young couple, alongside extended family, won the keys to a five-bedroom house offered for the first time, paying $1.68 million.
The brick home at 1 Lutanda Close had a guide of $1.6 million. It had a reserve of $1.68 million.
There is no legal requirement for a vendor’s reserve to be in line with their property’s price guide.
Two bidders registered and they were both active. Bidding for the property opened at $1.65 million. After three bids of a further $20,000, $5000 and a final $15,000, auctioneer Leon Axford’s hammer fell and the property sold.
“In the hottest part of the market it would have sold for $1.7 million to $1.8 million, but we found a good buyer willing to offer fair market value,” sales agent for Ray White Upper North Shore Nathan Leuzzi said.
The vendor is downsizing to an apartment. The underbidders were a young family searching for their first home.
“They have missed out [on buying at auction] a few times now,” Leuzzi said.
Robyn Willis is a property reporter and the former lifestyle editor for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
