Buyers feel the World Cup’s competitive fever

Ahead of the Matildas’ match against France tonight, following a rousing FIFA Women’s World Cup performance, auction buyers were feeling similarly competitive.

They stared each other down across driveways and living rooms, defended their property dreams and made aggressive moves to secure a win.

There were some stunning upsets and roaring triumphs for many as the Ray White Group recorded a 76 per cent clearance rate nationally. The group recorded 4.6 average registered bidders across the country today, while 2.9 were active on average.

Sellers who decided to sell on auction day in lieu of taking a prior offer on average netted nearly 12 per cent more on top of their sale price today.

With a $5.7 million price tag, well above the $5.4 million reserve, the result at 60 Gubbuteh Rd, Little Bay was the top auction sale of the day for the leading group. The six bedroom property was sold through Ray White Norwest’s Charles Pei and Fan Li.

Twenty eight buyers registered at today’s auction with the highest number of bidders. No. 11 Alison St, Athol Park was sold through Ray White Woodville’s Alex Ghinis and Peter Kiritsis after a lightning fast auction that saw the subdividable, corner block property sell for $840,000.

Ray White New South Wales state auctioneer Perry Edmondson-Clark said August was proving to be an exciting month for real estate across the state.

“With over 200 auctions scheduled this week, volume is clearly on the rise and winter is quickly becoming a distant memory as temperatures trend up,” he said.

“It seems so does the buyer activity. Today we've seen a rise in registered bidders, active bidding and clearance rate data, which must continue to fill our sellers with confidence.

“There is currently a great amount of variety across all buyer segments. And with an expected influx of stock to hit the market in the coming months, if sellers can beat the rush, they will put themselves in a better position to transact in this comfortable and incredibly normal market.”

60 Gubbuteh Rd, Little Bay

• Sold for $5.7 million - reserve was $5.4 million

• Five registered and three active bidders

• Agents: (Charles) Yuanchao Pei and Fan Li

• Ray White Norwest

“The seller (pictured above huddled with the sales team) is downsizing, she bought this house a couple of years ago before the kids moved out and it got too big for her. She is going to buy another smaller house in the area,” Mr Pei said.

“The buyers were from Coogee, they just sold their house. They wanted to move into this area and were drawn to the fact that it’s one of only about 28 houses here that face the ocean.

“The house needs a little bit of a refresh but the location is great which was a major drawcard for buyers. We had almost exclusively families from around Sydney looking at the home.”

12 Balmaringa Ave, Turramurra

• Sold for $2.703 million - reserve was $2.6 million

• Four registered and three active bidders

• Agent: Liana Power

• Ray White Upper North Shore

“The buyers (pictured above right) sold nearby through fellow Ray White Upper North Shore agent Jessica Cao recently and today they bought back into the market, they are a younger couple,” Ms Power said.

“The sellers (pictured above left) have lived in the area for the last 25 plus years, they brought their kids up in the home. They moved down south to test out country life and decided it’s where they want to stay so they sold the property, which they’ve had rented out for the last couple of years.

“I mostly had families looking at the home to get into the area, there weren’t many investors. It was either first home buyers or people looking to get in for the private school zone.”

4/36 Bream St, Coogee (pictured above)

• Sold for $980,000 - reserve was $800,000

• 16 registered and eight active bidders

• Agents: Nader Hotait and Matthew Murray

• Ray White Eastern Beaches

“It was hotly contested, the first bid was above the reserve at $810,000, and the auction was over within four or five minutes,” Mr Hotait said.

“The buyer was a lady who was purchasing it as an investment, but I would say around 80 per cent of interest came from first home buyers.

“They loved that it was a modern apartment, it’s turnkey so you can walk straight in and not spend any money, it had parking, a lock up garage and was close to the beach.”

4 Alsace Ave, Bardwell Valley

• Sold for $2.15 million - reserve was $1.6 million

• 10 registered and five active bidders

• Agents: Nicholas Economos (pictured above with the seller) and Tarun Cross

• Ray White Rockdale

• Auctioneer: Alex Pattaro, Ray White

“The auction was pretty fast from the get go, it opened at $1.4 million, it was a big momentum auction, there were no real lulls. The bidders there were keen and not messing around,” Mr Economos said.

“The buyers were a local family, the husband actually grew up across the road from the house and played in the park nearby as a kid.

“The house has views of the city and is directly opposite the park, which were the two main draws. It’s in a cul-de-sac and already had an upper level extension done so it really appealed to families.”

Ray White Victoria and Tasmania chief auctioneer Jeremy Tyrrell said it was full steam ahead for the property market as auction volume increased to 181 scheduled auctions off the back of last week's total of 162.

“This increase in volume is three-fold. One - agents are reporting strong listing numbers as we build into spring.

“Two - landlords are selling out due to proposed government constraints for the rental sector. We are seeing an increase of listings with active tenancies in place.

“Three - media agencies were today reporting that the 'mortgage cliff' has arrived.

“Even with these increases, buyer activity was strong as confidence builds with interest rates remaining on hold for the past couple of months.

“Although the number of active bidders at auction averaged out at 2.6, there were reports of many auctions with more than five bidders actively competing and the overall clearance rate remaining strong at just above 70 per cent.”

5 Lillee Close, Wantirna South

• Sold for $1.352 million - reserve was $1.25 million

• Four registered and active bidders

• Agents: Matthew George and Yuni Kim

• Ray White Ferntree Gully

• Auctioneer: Jeremy Tyrrell, Ray White

Victorian medical mask manufacturer Med-Con’s executive Steve Csiszar and his wife (pictured above) sold their home of nearly 40 years today. The company was vital during the COVID-19 pandemic as the only medical mask manufacturing business in Victoria.

“The bidders liked the locality of the property, it’s in a really quiet court which is hard to get into as you can see with the owners being there for close to 40 years,” selling agent Matthew George said.

“The buyers (pictured below) are a family living next door, they are planning to do an extension on the house. The underbidder probably lives about 500 metres away and had been looking for about a year now, while one of the other bidders had been living overseas and was looking to come back.

“The house had been renovated recently and was really well cared for, with a good entertaining space and two to three separate living areas.”

19 Maple Grove, Bundoora

• Sold for $765,000 - no reserve auction

• Five bidders

• Agents: Andrew Mizzi and Alice Rossi

• Ray White Bundoora

“It was a no reserve auction so that was obviously a big drawcard for buyers. It’s also neat and tidy and has the opportunity for someone to open up a little business,” Mr Mizzi said.

“The opening bid was $500 and it was pretty heated all the way through. Three of the bidders were looking to move into it and open a shop, the others were investors like the seller.”

Ray White Queensland chief auctioneer Gavin Croft said the depth across the southside markets today told us something about that part of Brisbane at the moment.

“There are some truly remarkable hotspots. We're seeing a lot of auctions average between four and five registered bidders which showcases the strength of the southside market,” he said.

“We're expecting a good clearance rate today. It should give our sellers enormous confidence to come to the market when you've got that volume of registration.

“Sellers should see this and take advantage of the current scenarios that we're seeing across the Brisbane market.”

41 Mayfield St, Ascot

• Sold for $4.03 million

• Nine registered and six active bidders

• Agent: Matt Lancashire

• Ray White Collective

• Auctioneer: Haesley Cush, Ray White

“The room was packed, we had a great crowd and some really strong bidding,” auctioneer and Ray White Collective principal Haesley Cush said.

“It opened quite low at $2.3 million and then steamed up to $4 million when it was called on the market, then two buyers battled it out in really little bids before it eventually sold for $4.03 million under the hammer.

“It’s a recently refurbished property which is a perfect example of what people are looking for in Brisbane because it gives them certainty about what the final property will look like in an uncertain construction cost environment.

“We had local and international buyers, I believe it went to a local buyer.”

Coming under the Ray White Collective banner were results from the Ray White Bulimba and Ray White Clayfield offices. Principal of Ray White Clayfield, Nicholas Given (pictured above) and associate Beau Broomfield sold 47 Kitchener Rd, Ascot for $2.085 million to a local family with an audience of five registered bidders and three active bidders.

Ray White Bulimba principal Brandon Wortley and sales associate Selina McIntyre (pictured above with the buyers) also sold 11 Apollo Rd, Bulimba for $2.05 million after the seller decided to put the property on the market to move south.