First home buyer wins $1.72m Richmond house at auction

The three-bedroom freestanding home at 23 Crown Street, with a gourmet kitchen in a neutral palette and a landscaped courtyard, was among 574 properties scheduled to go under the hammer in Melbourne last week. Domain recorded its preliminary clearance rate from 380 reported results by Saturday evening, with 73 auctions withdrawn and counted as unsold.

Auction volume was lower than the previous week because of the quasi-long weekend ahead of the Melbourne Cup holiday on Tuesday, when the Reserve Bank is due to decide whether to increase the cash rate for the fifth time this year.

The Richmond house attracted four bidders and a crowd of about 50. Bidding opened at $1.51 million and rose mostly in $10,000 increments, with a few smaller bids of $5,000 and $1,000, before clearing the $1.58 million reserve and selling at $1.72 million. "It just so happened that it got down to two bidders that really wanted the home," said BigginScott Richmond selling agent Julie Taylor. The buyer is a first home buyer who had some emotional support from her father. "She was just over the moon, really excited," Taylor said. "She will be very happy there for a long time."

The unsuccessful bidders included one downsizer and two upsizers, and the vendors had owned the home for more than two decades. Taylor said there was a lack of quality homes for sale in the area. "There was nothing on the market in Richmond, at the same time to really compete against it."

Elsewhere, a California bungalow in Brunswick West passed in on a vendor bid of $1.75 million. The six-bedroom property at 23 Guthrie Street, which includes a main home and a second residence, carried an advertised reserve of $1.8 million. Victorian Real Estate selling agent Colin Rounds said he believed the home offered good value for buyers wanting into the area, noting the road had been resurfaced. He said a building notice issued during the campaign, relating to the granny flat's use as a residence, would take a little work from a buyer to resolve. "Everything is fixable, it just takes time and a little bit of money," he said.

In Mount Waverley, a five-bedroom family home at 6 Glenmore Grove sold under the hammer for $2,561,000, above its reserve of $2.46 million. Jellis Craig selling agent Jared Wei said the house was built by its vendors, who are leaving the area. "Family home buyers are aggressive in the area if the property is right for them," he said.

LJ Hooker head of research Mathew Tiller said the long weekend made the state of the market hard to judge, with a clearer picture likely after the public holiday and the Reserve Bank decision. He said the upcoming state election may also be in the back of people's minds. He thought sellers were waiting for more information about the Reserve Bank's long-term approach. "Once they see it's clear that rate hikes have finished and the RBA is then looking for a pause and looking for the next rate cut, that's probably what sellers are looking for," he said.