Auction wrap from around the grounds

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"We are certainly seeing strength in the market place in the high end. A few good sales under the $800,000 but certainly today the high end was performing."

Across the board attendance and results bear out the story of a solid and confident market, not yet slowing for the Christmas break.

The Sydney feel good real estate story of the week got even better this weekend with the successful auction of 39 Cowper Street in Randwick, NSW where the beneficiary of the sale was Charles Sturt University.

Chris Williams of Ray White Balmain saw a good response to the property during the campaign, and reports 25 people attended the auction However, it started off and continued to be a two horse race, with the female opening bidder winning the auction with a final bid of $2,122,000.

“She kept throwing in bids of $2,000 or $3,000 and I asked her what she was doing that for and she said she had been watching ‘how to bid at auctions’ video on YouTube,” Mr Williams said. The family of four are looking forward to moving into their new home.

While bequests are not unheard of, one of this size is most unusual.

“I don’t ever remember hearing of a bequeathment of this size from a property sale," Mr Williams said. “It’s not uncommon for estates to leave a percentage to charity, but to know that all the proceeds will be used to benefit some very worthwhile causes make this a really exciting sale.”

The university will be setting up scholarships with the funds to support disadvantaged women from the NSW Central West Region, enabling them to study at the university.

A savvy investor snapped up a parkside apartment at 2 Coulson Street, Erskineville. The two bed, two bath apartment is in an attractive building with lush gardens of its own, and then borrowed greenery from the next door reserve. Plus the apartment for auction, 94/2 Coulson, has its own private and very ‘green’ balcony.

Ray White Surry Hills’ Christopher Bedzo had a guide of between $850,000-$890,000 on apartment, and five good, registered bidders in the crowd of 40 for the 9.30am start.

In Queensland now and the beautiful 14 Daphne Street property in Grange went up at 10am, and despite the heat Ray White Alderley agent Andrew Cowan described the auction in very poetic terms, saying it was “just beautiful, you could call it organic, everything just flowed.”

There were six registered bidders for the auction, though only four got to put their paddles up, with the other two out-bid from the get go.

Opening at $730,000, and with only a short pause at $835,000 a first home buyer, under enormous pressure, won the day at $840,000.

The pressure? Her husband was at the cricket, and split his attention between the action on the field and the action on his phone as he watched auction on the streaming service Gavl - with his wife working solo on the auction pitch.

The excitement of the day had to be in the elegant blue ribbon precinct of Nelson St, Kalinga.

Ray White New Farm elite agent Christine Rudolph and elite principal Matt Lancashire joined forces to present the magnificent five bedroom, five bathroom property at 119 Nelson St to auction, and did so in front of a massive crowd of 200 people.

The sprawling property included a long list of luxury inclusions, such as a full size, flood lit tennis court, a 12 camera CCTV system, a magnificent 4K home theatre and superb fittings throughout.

The auction went smoothly, with the only pause taking place at the mid $4 million mark, which allowed for some negotiation to take place directly with the two main bidders.

“Haesley Cush [the auctioneer] came back at that point and declared the property on the market at $5 million,” recalls Ms Rudolph. “It went really quickly from that point in $25,000, $50,0000 and finally $10,000 increments until the hammer fell at $5,150,000.”

The winning family, which include three very sporty young boys, are former residents of the street, and familiar with the property. When it came on the market they, according to Ms Rudolph “just had to have it.”

Wantirna in Victoria is a very popular location, yet the auction price of $1.186m caught everyone by surprise, being $226,000 over the guide.

Situated at 16 Mosman Close, the large four bedroom two bathroom home had recent upgrades to the bathrooms, and was well styled so when offers were received pre auction Ray White Ferntree Gully agent John Arroyo suspected it was going to sell well, and had a guide price between $950-$960,000.

“The opening bid was $990,000. There were two buyers advocates in the crowd of 80, and they went in strong, there was no mucking around. They had a list of properties they wanted to get today, but as it turned out, they didn’t get this one,” said the agent.

The final buyers were a young family - who managed the win unassisted by professional bidders.

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Ray White Victoria Chief Auctioneer Matt Condon said this week saw another high volume of auctions. "We are seeing a very healthy number when looking at the average amount of active bidders. On the ground, the entry level and first home buyer markets were busy today."

Thomastown, north of the Melbourne CBD is a tightly held and competitive market according to Ray White Thomastown’s Tony Alessandrino. When he got the listing at 39 Stonehaven Drive, he felt confident this would be a beauty. The vendor had held the property for six months, during which time he had done a complete renovation.

With no pre registrations, it was great news to see a crowd of 70 arrive for the auction, and also to sign up 5 bidders, all of which were active when the auction began.

“It was a really big crowd,” says Mr Alessandrino, “really good to see. The opening bid was $450,000, and the bidding went on without a break for 40 minutes.

“It was tough going,” added the agent who had given a price estimate of between $620-$680,000 during the campaign.

“We called it on the market at $730,000 and a first home buyer couple bought it at $747,000.”

As for the unlucky under bidders?

“We’re on the phone to them already,” said the agent, just two hours after the auction had completed.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the day came from Adelaide. The 11am auction of a very rundown 34 George Street in Norwood was not expected to be a huge deal - yet it turned out to be just that.

Ray White Flinders Park agent Sebastian Scrivia had seen 30 groups through during the campaign, but as the property was most likely a knock down proposition he was aware that the likely winning bid may have come from someone who had never set foot on the property.

“It was a 900sqm block, which is very generous but it only had a 15m frontage which meant it was a shade too small for a side by side development,” said Mr Scrivia. Price estimation before the auction were between $1.2-$1.3m.

Before long a winning bid came through of $1.535m, and not from a developer, but from a family who are very keen to knock it down and build their dream home.

Needless to say the attending neighbours, according to Mr Scrivia, were pretty happy with the auction result.