‘It went a bit viral on Instagram’: Soaring townhouse fetches $1.15m

An upsizing couple paid $1.15 million for an East Melbourne townhouse with soaring ceilings and oversized windows at auction on Saturday, beating three others for the keys.

The two-bedroom home at 5 Green Place featured a sunny living room with floor-to-ceiling glass and a northern aspect, exposed brick walls, a leafy courtyard and timber ceilings.

The property was one of 629 scheduled to go to auction in Melbourne last week. By Saturday evening, Domain recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 59 per cent from 416 reported results throughout the week, while 74 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.

The early result edged up from last week’s preliminary read of 56 per cent despite the Reserve Bank’s decision on Tuesday to increase the cash rate for the fifth time this year.

The East Melbourne home fielded close to 200 enquiries during the campaign, Ray White CRE selling agent Toby Campbell said.

“It went a bit viral on Instagram,” he said.

The home, sold by investors, was offered with a reserve price of $1,075,000 and drew four bidders.

Bidding began with an offer of $800,000, before a vendor bid was placed at $1 million.

Then the price rose slowly in a mix of $10,000, $15,000, $5000 and $1000 bids.

It only took one bid from the winners to secure the home, paying $1.15 million. The couple are moving from an apartment in a nearby suburb.

“It is a pretty unique joint,” Campbell said. “It has got lots of character.”

He said it was rare for homes like this to go on sale and described the local market broadly as “flat”. “Especially for East Melbourne, it is a tightly held marketplace so it is not uncommon when these properties come up for it to go really well.”

Campbell said he had four registered bidders before the rate hike, and still had four registered bidders after the hike.

In Northcote, two young couples competed for a renovated house that sold for $1,145,000.

The two-bedroom home at 2 Cleveland Street was offered with a reserve price of $1.13 million.

Bidding began with a vendor bid of $1.05 million, enough to spur the two parties to start competing in a mix of $10,000 and $5000 bids and push the price past its reserve.

A couple represented by a buyer’s advocate won. The home ticked several boxes: close to shops, single level, and a north-facing living room and yard, Nelson Alexander selling agent Matthew Akritidis said.

The sellers are upsizing nearby. “They love the location,” he said.

He had two auctions on Saturday and both sold.

A stylish three-bedroom townhouse at 6 Roberts Street, Northcote passed in on a live bid of $1.32 million, the only bid.

It sold in post-auction negotiations for its reserve price of $1.38 million to a family. The vendor will upsize locally.

Akritidis thought the market between $1 million and $1.5 million was doing well as there will be few new listings between now and late January. But he said the recent rate hike affected borrowing capacity.

“Buyers that we are talking to certainly can’t borrow as much as what they could.”

In Pascoe Vale South, a villa unit sold for $710,000 to a couple who are renovating their own home in a nearby suburb and wanted to buy somewhere to move into in the meantime.

The two-bedroom home at 1/98 Grandview Avenue had a reserve price of $660,000.

Three parties registered, of whom two bid. Proceedings started at $640,000 and the price rose in 23 bids, some as small as $1000 towards the end, to $710,000.

The underbidder was a first home buyer. The vendor was a home owner.

Ray White Brunswick selling agent Trish Di Vito works mostly with first home buyers and says she has had good numbers coming through open homes.

Most of the interest for Grandview Avenue came from first home buyers.

“It was a fantastic two-bedroom villa unit,” she said.

In Spotswood, a two-bedroom single-fronted Victorian home sold for $732,500. It had last sold for $770,000 in 2019, records show.

The home at 23 Bolton Street had a reserve of $749,000 and one buyer, a first home buyer, who turned up and negotiated with the vendor, an investor, to secure a sale prior to auction.

“Anything unrenovated is being very heavily discounted and works are taken into consideration,” Jellis Craig Kensington selling agent Jerome Feery said.

PRD chief economist Diaswati Mardiasmo noted the slight rise in the auction clearance rate after the cash rate hike.

“I don’t blame anyone who is ready to purchase going, ‘I’d better get in now just in case there’s another cash rate hike that will decrease my borrowing power even more,’” she said.

“[Buyers might think] ‘The market has softened … now it’s soft enough for us to be able to score the property we wanted at a slightly reduced price, we are good to go.’”

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