A crowd of around 70 people gathered for a fast-paced auction on February 1, with 14 registered bidders sending offers from around the world.
The property at 92 Delavan St, Wishart, needed to sell on the day, as its 92 year-old vendor needed the money to afford his transition to aged care living.
The four-bedroom, two-bathroom home sits on a 630 sqm block, and featured several accessibility features to accommodate for the vendor’s age.
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Agent Henry Wong of RE/MAX’s The Henry Wong Team said the property attracted several potential buyers both out of the state and out of the country.
The auction saw a big crowd of people on the Saturday afternoon, some bidding in person and some bidding over the phone.
“There was a lot of people – we had a coffee van there as well,” Mr Wong said. “It was quite a lot of small bids, no big jumps.”
A starting bid of $1.2 million set off a frenzy of offers, with seven active bidders going back and forth as the price raised by hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The vendor needed to sell the home on the day to afford getting into aged care.
No vendor bids were required, with some participants bidding past their expected maximums as the price increased.
Bids were increasing by $500 near the end of the auction. After a whopping 47 bids had passed, the home finally sold under the hammer for $1.5 million.
Wishart’s suburb house price median is $1,395,300. Mr Wong said the price was similar to that of a five-bedroom home which recently sold in the area.
“[It was] well past what any of us thought,” he said. “It’s a significant outcome for our sellers … the sellers were very emotional.”
A local family was able to outbid interstate and international buyers, after searching for months for a home.
The winning bidders were a local family, who ended up outbidding the buyers from interstate and overseas.
“It’s a family who’ve got two young kids,” Mr Wong said. “They’re looking at buying in a good school catchment.”
Mr Wong said the wife of the family cried when they heard the auction’s final result.
“They tried so hard to find a house for so many months,” he said. “This is a very great outcome for them.”
The family had moved from the north side of Brisbane, seeking Wishart for its education opportunities for their kids.
Mr Wong added the vendor would be missed by his neighbours as he went into aged care, after becoming known for going around the area in his electric wheelchair.
