An elegant three-storey Victorian terrace in Surry Hills sold for $3.7 million in a hotly contested auction on Saturday.
Seven potential buyers registered to bid and five made offers on the “immaculately preserved” three-bedroom home at 355 Riley Street. The property had the potential to lease out the downstairs level, which could act as a self-contained apartment.
Bidding opened on the guide at $3 million and raced in $50,000 bids to its reserve of $3.4 million. Bids of $25,000 took it to $3,525,000. There were a few attempts at knockout bids from there; someone offered $3.6 million, another bid $3,625,000, and then the winner placed the final bid of $3.7 million.
BresicWhitney Inner East selling agent Michael Kirk said the confident bidding, between all owner occupiers, was a testament to buyer demand in Surry Hills.
“There’s a big flight back to the area. It’s obviously on the doorstep of the CBD. And I just think, with people starting to come back to the city to work again, Surry Hills is one of the No.1 picks for them.
“During the pandemic … there was a bit of an exodus from the city, but it’s well and truly the opposite now,” Kirk said.
The listing agent said the home was well preserved. Credit: BresicWhitney
The vendor will be downsizing to an apartment. The terrace last traded for $2.25 million in 2019, records show.
The property was one of 750 scheduled auctions in Sydney on Saturday.
By evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 67.7 per cent from 502 reported results, while 107 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.
Across the bridge in Cammeray, a three-bedroom, freestanding house at 253 West Street sold for $2,610,000.
Sixteen registered to bid and six made offers before a crowd of 100. The home was guided at $2.1 million.
Bidding opened at $1.8 million, and $50,000 bids followed until $2.1 million, followed by $25,000 bids until a final $10,000 bid secured the keys for a family with young children.
Young families were “the bulk of the interested parties”, The Agency’s Steven Devine said.
“There’s not much on the market in that pocket. It is very convenient to all the amenities. And it’s in fairly original condition, so there’s scope for further improvement,” he said.
The 97-year-old vendor was happy with the result. She had lived in the home for most of her life before leasing it in recent years. She had owned the home for about 70 years.
The sale price was $410,000 more than its $2.2 million reserve.
In Mona Vale, a four-bedroom, single-level house with a swimming pool at 31 Emma Street sold for $2.76 million. Seven registered and four made offers, a mix of mostly young families and downsizers.
Bidding opened right on the guide of $2.4 million and a $200,000 first bid took it to $2.6 million, then six additional bids ranging from $10,000 to $100,000 took the final price to $2.76 million.
LJ Hooker Mona Vale selling agent Marco Cimino wouldn’t disclose the reserve but said it had been “dropped” during the auction.
The northern beaches area is “blessed and protected” from the cost-of-living crisis and high interest rates, Cimino said.
“You wouldn’t really know if someone was under financial stress because people are still getting better prices than nearly 2021 in the peak,” he said.
The buyers were a growing family upsizing from a townhouse in Balgowlah that they had sold in the same week.
The Mona Vale home last traded for $2.41 million in 2021, records show.
AMP’s chief economist, Dr Shane Oliver, said the weekend clearance rate of 67.7 per cent showed the market was hanging in there with modest price growth.
“School holidays can distort things a little bit, but it can work both ways. Less buyers and less listings, and listings are certainly cut down. But despite the fallen listings, we’re still seeing results,” he said.
“One of the things that was supporting the market at the start of this year at least was hopes for rate cuts by the middle of the year. That seems to be getting pushed out. I think we will get rate cuts by the end of the year.
“But it’s looking increasingly less likely we’re going to get them around mid-year. So that sort of delay in the timing of rate cuts could have a dampening impact on the market going forward, particularly as we go into the winter months when buyers tend to hold back anyway.”