3 days ago
First home buyers snap up bayside three-bedder for $1.77m
A St Kilda house in need of a little love sold at Saturday's auction for $300,000 over reserve after a first home buyer couple paid $1.765 million for the three-bedroom property.
With a price guide of $1.3 million to $1.4 million, the auction of 17 Fawkner Street attracted well over 40 onlookers and four serious bidders, who battled it out for nearly 15 minutes before victory was secured.
The reserve price was $1.46 million. There is no legal requirement for a vendor's reserve to be in line with their property's price guide.
The property was one of 1417 scheduled to go to auction in Melbourne this week. By evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 70.3 per cent from 1048 reported results throughout the week, while 105 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.
Auctioneer Nick Renna took the bidders through a competitive session with an opening bid of $1.45 million, where two couples battled it out until the $1.725 million mark, at which point the third and fourth bidders stepped in.
Connor Delany from Jellis Craig Brighton said the winners, a couple with teenage children, were renting in Albert Park and had been on the lookout for their first property.
'Those buyers came from Barcelona, they've been here for about 15 years, and it's their first purchase,' he said. Most of the potential buyers were local, with many looking to 'renovate and live in the house, or flip it'.
'The house needs some TLC,' Delany said. The underbidders included a couple with nearby family, an upsizer in an apartment, and an older European man.
