Sydney auction: fruitful Christmas push, $600k over reserve

In the last ditch effort to offload before Christmas, auction results are giving owners surprisingly huge windfalls despite a “softer market.”

A Redfern terrace has sold $600,000 above its guide and reserve of $2.61m.

The auction for 44 Redfern St attracted seven registered bidders with five active and sold to a family.

Most of the active bidders were families looking to purchase the home, said lead agent BresicWhitney’s Michael Kirk.

“For Redfern it ticked a lot of boxes,” he said. “ It had five a half metre long north rear access and parking in a nice central location,” he said.

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Redfern Terrace sells for $600,000 above reserve.

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“The vendors were happy based on there had been a sale three doors down that sold for $2m with a similar land size.”

The home was a deceased estate and bidding started at $1.8m and went up incrementally in $25,000 and $50,000 bids.

In Randwick, a three-bedroom apartment has sold for $2.021m, $321,000 above reserve.

The auction at 14 registered and eight active bidders and was sold by Ray White Eastern Beaches agents Angus Gorrie and Nick Wiggan.

“The buyers were a young couple with children who had just sold in Randwick. All the underbidders were young couples with kids,” Mr Gorrie said.

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Happy Randwick buyer after auction.

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The opening bid started at $1.65 million, then jumped straight to $1.8 million increasing in increments of $25,000 and $50,000 bids to $2m, then $1,000 and $5,000 bids.

“The property is a good size with a lot of potential and art deco features,” he added.

“Buyers are wanting to get in before the end of the year. The market has finished really strongly in this area. Buyers are starting to think about how rates are going to come down next year and that’s given the market a bit more urgency in the last few weeks.”

4/5 William Street, Randwick.

In Kirribilli, a unit on a harbourside block has sold for a bargain $780,000, $30,000 above its reserve of $750,000.

Agent and auctioneer Stewart Kirby from LJ Hooker Lane Cove said he had some fun with the auction.

“No one was bidding and then a super yacht went past and I said for god sakes you’re going to buy a unit for the cost of this guys petrol bill for the day,” Mr Kirby said.

“It’s a waterfront block, but there is a huge disparity for the units off the waterfront and facing the street … the highest sale is $3.16m for a two bedroom in the building,” he said.

“You can fish from the balcony (in some units) and then you have a one bedroom on the other side and that sells for $780,00,” he said.

Views from the building’s private lawn area only accessible for residents.

It was one of only 15 units, five which faced the street and didn’t have harbour views in the building, yet it featured a private lawn area for residents that looked right on to the harbour.

The one-bedroom unit was ripe for renovation, or ready to be taken from “drab to fab,” as the marketing for the home suggested. There were three-registered bidders at the auction.

Inside the one bedroom Kirribilli unit sells for $780,000.

The property sold to a couple that were planning to fully renovate the unit and keep it as an investment and potentially use it as their Sydney base in the future.

On Thursday, the western Sydney based Ray White Diamantidis Group held an in-room auction event that netted $13.275 million worth of sales. Fourteen out of the 18 lots offered were sold while 62 buyers registered to bid at the event.

170 Adelaide Street sold for $1.661m.

The top sale of the night was 170 Adelaide Street, St Marys which attracted 14 registered bidders. The buyers were investors from Victoria who bought the property after it was offered for the first time in 65 years. The reserve was set at $1.6m and sold for $1.661m through Ray White Diamantidis Group principal Peter Diamantidis.

Mr Diamantidis said the market surprised them so close to Christmas with over 300 people in attendance.

“The highlight was developer stock and investors in the western Sydney market, which was more than expected at this point of the year,” he said.