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A four-bedroom home in Wheelers Hill sold at auction for $1.39 million on Saturday, after five families pushed the price more than $100,000 over the reserve.
The clinker brick house, at 4 Samantha Close, is minutes from Jells Park and Caulfield Grammar. With underfloor heating, a glass-covered sitting room overlooking the yard, and a chair lift for accessibility, it had a price guide of $1.18 million to $1.28 million.
Biggin Scott agent and auctioneer Lindsay Xu said bidding had started low, at $1 million.
Three bidders nudged the price up slowly, she said, albeit in $100,000 and $50,000 increments, before it hit the $1.25 million reserve.
Xu said another two families joined the fray once the property was declared on the market.
Bids went up by $10,000 and $25,000, then went down to smaller $2000 and $3000 increments, before the hammer came down, she said.
The sitting room, with glass atrium, at 4 Samantha Close, was a draw card for bidders.Credit: Biggin Scott
“The buyers bought this one to live in now,” she said. “They had already sold their own house and just wanted to find another one in the area.”
Xu thought a long weekend, and not many auctions to compete with, helped the house draw a large crowd, and a number of families ready to bid.
The property was one of 489 scheduled to go to auction in Melbourne on Saturday, fewer than usual because of the long weekend.
In Macleod, a two-bedroom villa unit sold for $750,500 at auction. Bids went down to $500 increments before the unit finally sold.
The unit, part of a block of four at 4/21-23 Braid Hill Road, has a private courtyard and a simple, well-maintained interior.
Ray White Macleod auctioneer and agent Kaylah Guerra said she had taken the unusual step of publishing the $703,000 reserve in the final week of the campaign due to a prior offer, which allowed prospective buyers to organise inspections and bid with confidence.
She said bidding opened on the day at the $703,000 reserve, and went up in $5000 and $10,000 increments from four bidders.
A battle of $500 bids at the end of the auction was won by a first-home-buyer couple, she said, who beat the three other bidders – all downsizers.
The unit featured a north-facing courtyard.Credit: Ray White
She said the vendors were investors who had owned the home for 10 years, and had kept the same tenants for the duration.
“It was cared for and looked after like it was owner-occupied,” Guerra said. “You don’t find that very often.”
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