March 5 was a busy day for Auctions. My colleagues and I were at 9 Auctions on Saturday. 5 properties were sold under the hammer. 1 was sold immediately after Auction, and 3 were passed in.
Now that autumn is officially here, it seems as though the market has finally woken up after a long Christmas holiday slumber! Buyers were out in large numbers to inspect new listings and to bid at Auctions. Bidders also seem to be a lot more confident in their bidding, which is a reflection of the market sentiment.
Bidding for the above 3 bedroom townhouse started at $950,000. The original reserve was set at $1.050 million but this was lowered to $1.040 after a stall in bidding. After 30 minutes and 2 bidders battling it out, the property sold for $1.055 million and the vendors achieved their original reserve price anyway.
The above property sits on the high side of the street with north-to-rear aspect. Most of the interest came from builders and developers as the property has a 26 metre frontage and 2,021m2 of mostly level land. Purchased under the hammer for $1.4 million, this property will most likely be sub-divided into two lots of just over 1,000m2 each. This was a good buy and should be a profitable little venture as brand new houses on 1,000m2 land in the neighbourhood can fetch in the very high $1 million to early $2 million if built and finished properly. The selling agent was quoting a price guide of $1.2 – $1.3 million.
The above property saw just about every neighbour in attendance to watch the Auction. Alas it was not a particularly exciting Auction as there were no bids and only 1 Vendor Bid at $2.75 million before the property was promptly passed in. This was not a surprising outcome given that the selling agent was quoting the property at “north of $2.5 million” during the marketing campaign. There were also 2 other properties on the market on this same street, albeit across a different price range.
This was a highly unusual Auction with the property being sold for $1.9 million after one and only bid! The reserve was set at $1.95 million but after 10 minutes of waiting, the selling agent and Auctioneer managed to convince the vendors to reduce the reserve by $50,000 to get the deal done. The price guide quoted by the selling agent during the marketing campaign was $1.8 million.
3 bidders competed at Auction for the above property. The reserve was $2.25 million and the property was sold under the hammer for $2.36 million. The selling agent was initially quoting “mid $2m’s”.
This 3 bedroom house needing renovation in a prime location attracted a large crowd at the Auction. The selling agents were quoting “high $1m” during the marketing campaign. There was only 1 bid at $1.8 million before the property was passed in.
There was a huge turnout and quite a number of registered bidders for the above property. The property was marketed at around $1.5 million by the selling agent. The opening bid was $1.3 million and after strong competition, the property was sold under the hammer for $1.705 million to a bidder who came in late in the game. The reserve was $1.58 million and even rain in the middle of the Auction did not dampen the result!
This was a disappointing Auction with only 1 bidder who tried to place a bid of $850,000 even though the property was marketed at around $1.1 – $1.2 million. Worth noting that there are currently 2 other properties in a very similar price bracket for sale on this street.
About Oliver Stier
Oliver J. Stier is the Director of OH Property Group, a leading Sydney buyers agency. He studied Quantitative Economics and Finance at Cambridge University (UK), University of Toronto (Canada) and Princeton University (USA). In addition to being a licensed real estate agent, Oliver also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.
