Family pays $2.9m for a Princes Hill home in competitive auction

The Age

a day ago

'The clearance rate at our company is over 88 per cent, so we are selling them, and we are selling them competitively,' Cortese added.
Meanwhile, further out in Melbourne's east an investor, a first home buyer and a builder developer negotiated to buy a post-war weatherboard house after it passed in at auction at $750,000.
The three-bedroom house on 60 Surrey Road, Blackburn North had a price guide of $858,000 to $943,800, and a reserve price of $940,000. Peter Schenck, Ray White Blackburn selling agent and auctioneer, said the two bidders – the first home buyer and builder – were joined by a single woman – the investor – in post-auction negotiations, who bought the house for $901,000.
'The buyer was a lady who turned up post-auction but had seen the house before,' Schenck said. 'She is an investor, and will rent the property out back through us.'
He said investors were slowly coming back into the market post the February and May rate cuts.
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In Melbourne's inner south-east, two first home buyers in their 20s battled it out with the help of their parents for a single-fronted Victorian home, with the winner paying $1.35 million for the property at auction.
The three-bedroom house at 13 Oban Street, South Yarra was built about 1880, and had been held by the same family for nearly 70 years. Kay & Burton Stonnington selling agent Gabrielle Gruskin listed the home for sale with a quoted price range of $1.2 million to $1.3 million.
'We had quite a lot of interest in the house, with about 60 groups coming through – we thought there may be more in the crowd, but there is always more houses coming up,' she said.
The buyer – a man in his early 20s whose parents had bid on his behalf – had called about the property only the day before auction, Gruskin said.
'He hadn't been through it … and he came through today and bought it,' she said.
The auction had opened with a bid of $1.2 million, with the two sole bidders battling it out for nearly 15 minutes, Gruskin added. The reserve price was $1.3 million.
The underbidder, a man in his late 20s, had visited the property previously and was with his father, who bid on his behalf. Both men were looking to purchase their first home.
'These type of properties in South Yarra have been especially popular with the first home buyers … there has been a rise in interest in the market,' Gruskin said.
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Just across the Yarra River in Richmond, a townhouse sold under the hammer for $1,205,000 to a couple in their 30s.
The three-bedroom home at 6/33 York Street had been guided at $1.05 million to $1.1 million, with a reserve price of $1.05 million, BigginScott Richmond leasing agent Phoebe Hnarakis said.
'All four bidders were young couples, one with children,' she said. The winners were first home buyers with 'a bit of a trade background, and are excited to do some work to the place', she added.
While renovated or 'turnkey' homes were still more popular, properties such as the townhouse were also sought after because 'someone could come and put their stamp on it without having to do anything structural,' Hnarakis said.