Elsewhere, a one-bedroom apartment located at PG11/11 Power Avenue in Alexandria was fiercely contested at auction on Saturday.
Fifteen registered to bid and seven actively bid on the pet-friendly ground level unit with its own private courtyard entrance and entertaining outdoor area.
Bidding opened in front of a curious crowd of 60 people right on the guide of $750,000. Bids of $10,000 were placed until $890,000. A series of $5000 and $1000 bids took the price to $905,000.
It took five minutes to reach the winning bid placed by a first home buyer couple who were renting nearby. The vendor was an investor who had previously lived in the suburb but had relocated to Melbourne.
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Selling agent Brad Gillespie from The Agency said buyers were now more enthusiastic and committed to securing property.
“We’ve gained momentum. There’s more enthusiasm. It’s a far more positive market than we were in 2022. It’s like we’ve left 2022 behind us now,” he said.
LJ Hooker’s head of research Matthew Tiller said Saturday’s 76.3 per cent clearance rate was strong and consistent with a steady rise in attendances at open homes and auctions.
“We [LJ Hooker] have seen really good numbers, sales rates, attendances at homes,” he said, adding Sydney was the first to go into a downturn in January 2022 and appears to be the first to bounce back.
“We’re seeing a lot more buyer activity inquiry. We have started to see a pick-up in homeowners looking into an appraisal and getting an idea about what their home’s worth in the current market.
“From a price point of view, those home owners request an appraisal and therefore that generally transitions into a higher listing number in a couple of months. So we’re expecting listings will start to rise for the second half of the year.”
In Sydney’s east, a semi-detached four-bedroom house sold for $4,805,000 at 11B Bond Street in Maroubra.
Five registered to bid and four actively bid. Bidding opened at $3.8 million and climbed over the reserve within the mid $4 million range. Once $4.7 million was reached three bidders stayed in the game. At $4.8 million five $1000 bids were placed back and forth between the couple who originally opened bidding, an underbidder and the winning bidder until the gavel fell on the final bid of $4,805,000.
The buyers are a couple in their 60s returning to the eastern suburbs after years on Scotland Island.
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Selling agent Marina Makhlin from LJ Hooker Bondi Junction said the appeal of the property was its turnkey condition.
“It really ticks all the boxes, and then you didn’t have to spend any money; you could just move straight in,” she said.
Auctioneer Damien Cooley cited an average of seven bidders across 45 auctions his company held on Saturday.
“There is a very low volume of property on the market. And that’s what’s driving the competition. I think that’s one of the big reasons we’re seeing the average number of registered bidders. So high seven, when you’re averaging seven bidders at every auction, that’s getting towards boom market territory. Prices aren’t running away from people right now. That average number of registered bidders correlates to an incredibly strong market.”