Young family splashes $5.87m to cross town for pretty Albert Park terrace

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A young family spent $5.87 million on a five-bedroom double-storey home in Albert Park with a seven-metre wide frontage at auction on Saturday.

Three buyers competed for the Victorian residence at 102 Bridport Street, which had a price guide of $4.8 million to $5.2 million. Jellis Craig Port Phillip selling agent Simon Gowling declined to disclose the reserve price.

The Albert Park house was one of 1019 auctions scheduled in Melbourne on Saturday. By evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 56.2 per cent from 739 reported results, the first time outside of long weekends that this result has slipped below the 60 per cent level since December last year.

Meanwhile, 108 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.

The successful buyers are moving across the city from Williamstown. The underbidder was an international buyer, while the third bidder was a local young family.

The auction opened at $4.8 million, and $25,000 and $20,000 bids were made by the buyers up to $5.85 million. Gowling said that the pace of the bidding meant he declared the property on the market later than he had intended, at $5.4 million.

Two $10,000 bids were made to conclude the auction.

The property was close to the CBD and the double garage and studio at its rear was appealing to buyers, Gowling said.

“It was a really good self-contained unit as it used the full seven-metre width of the property,” he said. “We’re finding the higher the price range, the stronger the market is right now.

“It wasn’t really competing with anything on the market. It had the right orientation, good width, good land size and beautiful period rooms.”

Elsewhere, in East Melbourne, a freestanding three-bedroom house sold at auction on Saturday for $5.65 million.

“Sydenham House” at 80 Hotham Street was first built in 1879 and had not been on the market for four decades. The house had a price guide of $5.1 million to $5.3 million.

Abercrombys real estate director Jock Langley said there was a spirited auction for the property between two buyers, in front of a healthy crowd of neighbours and interested parties.

Langley said there were eight registered buyers, but only two raised their hands at auction.

He said the property, on 401 square metres, had appealed to downsizers and young families. The successful buyer was represented by an advocate.

Bidding for the auction opened at $5.15 million and it was declared on the market near $5.4 million, Langley said.

“It all goes back to location and the amenity of East Melbourne,” Langley said.

“People buy that location because they want to be able to walk to the city or to sporting precincts.”

In Melbourne’s north, five families competed for a renovated five-bedroom house in Coburg at 47 Marks Street.

Bidding opened at $1.7 million and one family made a $100,000 bid seconds later, said Ray White Coburg auctioneer Yash Akpinar. Shortly after, a $50,000 bid was made by another party for the property.

However, once bidding reached $1.94 million, the auction slowed. Akpinar decided to pause the auction and meet with the vendors. After discussions, Akpinar returned and declared the property on the market.

He said once the property was declared, $10,000 and $5000 bids were made before it sold for $2.03 million. The price guide was $1.8 to $1.9 million.

Akpinar said the successful couple and their young child visibly broke down after they had won the auction. He said they had been searching for a property for three years.

“They were just relieved to finally get on the market because they have been looking for so long,” Akpinar said.

The five bidders were all local to Coburg and had been contemplating buying a new place or renovating their existing property.

“It would cost you a lot less to buy something like this as opposed to doing your own place up,” Akpinar said.

SQM Research managing director Louis Christopher said the preliminary results from this weekend suggest Melbourne’s property market is at a tipping point.

“Typically, during the spring selling season, you do see auction clearance rates tend to fall but it appears to me this is a little bit more than seasonality,” Christopher said.

“You’re going to see more would-be buyers be cautious and more disagreement between buyers and sellers in terms of what the fair price is.”

Christopher said the upper end of the market and established apartments are unlikely to be significantly affected by the market conditions.

“We’re expecting weak home prices for the middle ring of Melbourne for freestanding houses,” he said.

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