Source : the age
A professional woman in her 30s has forked out $1.875 million for a single-storey Georgian home in South Yarra after it passed in at auction. The reserve price was $1.85 million.
The home at 27 Phoenix Street features three bedrooms, ornate fireplaces, a luxurious bathroom and a small backyard. Woodards South Yarra agent Cate Vesely listed the deceased estate for sale with a quoted price range of $1.7 million to $1.9 million. The reserve price was $1.85 million.
The auction began with a vendor bid of $1.7 million, followed by a single bid of $1.725 million before passing in.
Vesely said the buyer was the only registered bidder, and that she had fallen in love with the home “the moment she saw it”.
“She’s a young professional who just moved over from New Zealand and was looking to buy a place and live in it. She just fell in love with this one and has been with us from the start of the four-week campaign.”
The underbidder were an older couple looking to upsize from their current large apartment, also in South Yarra, to a home in the area.
The home features three bedrooms, ornate fireplaces, a luxurious bathroom and a small backyard.Credit: Domain
In Footscray, four bidders fought over a rundown three-bedroom home at 39 Stafford Street that had stood vacant for years.
Ray White Sunshine agent and auctioneer Marcus Fregonese listed the house for sale with a quoted price range of $600,000 to $660,000. The reserve price was $660,000.
Fregonese said the winning bid, at $720,000, was offered by “a young, local guy in the building game” who was looking to renovate it for his first home. The underbidders were young couples looking to knock it down.
The home’s owners, an elderly couple who had once lived in the house but long since moved to the east of Melbourne, did not have “the energy to renovate it”, Fregonese said.
After a starting bid of $600,000, the four traded bids of $10,000 increments until $680,000, after which they slowed to $5,000.
“It’s unlivable and dilapidated, and actually had squatters in there. The guy who bought it is planning a full renovation,” Fregonese said.
He said there was renewed confidence in the market following this week’s rate cut.
The run-down house at 39 Stafford Street in Footscray.Credit: Domain
“We are starting to see enquiry levels increase already and sentiment in the marketplace is very good.
“It started with the first interest rate cut, then the election was a distraction, but after the second rate cut people are factoring in future rate cuts and thinking if they don’t get in now they’ll miss out.”
