Four-bedroom Montmorency house sells for $235,000 above reserve
A four-bedroom home in Montmorency, in Melbourne’s north-east, on a stepped triangular block sold for $1,475,000 at auction on Saturday, with three bidders pushing it $235,000 above its reserve.
One of a street of homes built by the same builder in the late 1970s, and backing onto a flora and fauna reserve, 30 McCarthy Grove sits on 928 square metres of lush green land, with a red-brick undercover terrace, polished floorboards, a ground-level rumpus room, an upstairs entertaining area and a secure double garage.
The property was one of 773 scheduled to go to auction in Melbourne last week. By Saturday evening, Domain recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 57 per cent from 515 reported results throughout the week, while 89 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.
The preliminary clearance rate sits just below the 59 per cent from the previous week. There were almost 150 more auctions scheduled this week as the unusually quiet spring auction season ramps up in its final month before the Christmas and January break.
The Montmorency home had a listed reserve of $1.24 million, which Ray White Eltham agent and auctioneer Jackson Ball said was advertised “a little bit earlier” than the seven days before auction required by law. The earlier notice gave the vendors two weeks “to get a bit of a sense on what the reception would be from the market”, Ball said.
The auction opened with a genuine bid of $1.1 million, jumped in $20,000 and $10,000 increments from three bidders, quickly passed the $1.24 million reserve – at which it was declared on the market – and hit $1.32 million.
From there, two local families looking to upsize duked it out until the finish. The winning bidders were a couple with two children who attend nearby Montmorency South Primary School.
Ball said the property was competitive because of its “emotional pull”, given its proximity to both bushland and the primary school. The vendors were retiring to a country block in Bundalong, in north-east Victoria, he said.
In Richmond, a townhouse at the rear of a quiet block which is just over 10 minutes’ walk from Yarra Park and the MCG, and nearby Bridge Road, failed to sell at auction when it was passed in without a single bid.
The two-storey home at 13/16 Goodwood Street had a listed reserve of $900,000, having been advertised at $920,000 for an auction the week prior. Barry Plant Croydon agent and auctioneer David Stewart said he took advantage of the requirement to have a reserve listed for at least seven days before auction day to delay and adjust the price to meet buyer expectations.
“We had a couple of false starts with buyers that, for whatever reason, didn’t proceed,” he said. His team lost two potential buyers – an investor acting through a buyer’s agent and a first home buyer – in the final two weeks of the campaign.
“I think we threw absolutely everything we could at the market to try and get a result for [the vendors],” Stewart said. The vendors are long-term clients selling to fund their retirement.
Stewart said “significant economic challenges”, such as legislative changes, the five rate hikes this year and rising energy costs due to the conflict in the Middle East, had affected the sale rather than any failing of the property or its marketing. It was initially listed in June for $1,065,000 as a private treaty sale.
The vendors will now delay retirement and convert the property to a rental for at least the next year, holding off selling for a more favourable market.
A four-bedroom cream brick house in Mount Waverley, in the city’s south-east, sold for $1,525,000 after seven bidders pushed it $125,000 above its reserve during a mammoth 40-minute auction.
The home at 3 Toirram Road was being sold for the first time since it was built in the late 1960s, and various bidders – from local upsizers and renovators to developers – helped drive competition on the home. It was listed with a reserve of $1.4 million.
Ray White Mount Waverley agent Jacob Biviano said the home’s location, on a corner block in the centre of the suburb, led to a “good auction”.
“It was clearly suitable for a few [different] buyer profiles,” he said.
Auctioneer Max Turner opened the auction with a genuine $1.3 million bid, from which the seven bidders slowly increased the price through $25,000 and $10,000 increments. Once the property hit the reserve and was on the market, the bids slowed to $1000 increments over 40 minutes.
Biviano said a young family bought the home and were keen to renovate. The vendors are moving into care.
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