Coburg family home passes in at auction after attracting only one bidder

A sprawling, multi-generational home in Coburg was passed in at $1.4 million on Saturday, after only one genuine bidder took part in an intimate off-street auction.

The double-storey, five-bedroom weatherboard house at 139 Nicholson Street featured stained-glass windows, wood floors and a separate bungalow with bathroom and kitchenette.

The price guide was $1.3 million to $1.4 million, with a reserve of $1.5 million.

There is no legal requirement for a vendor’s reserve to be in line with their property’s price guide.

Ray White Coburg agent and auctioneer Raphael Calik-Houston held the auction at the property’s rear undercover deck to avoid traffic noise.

With attendees almost outnumbered by agents, prospective buyers and observers were able to sit for the proceedings.

After a silent start, Calik-Houston opened with a vendor bid of $1.3 million.

The sole bidder offered $1.32 million, before Calik-Houston made a final $1.4 million vendor bid before the house was passed in.

The bidder said he was bidding for his children, and hoped to make another offer when the house became available for private sale.

“It seems like I’m the only genuine bidder,” said the man, who did not give his name. “People have talked about the prices going up, but there’s not been a lot of action here.”

Calik-Houston said the unique floor plan had probably played a part in the property passing in.

“It was always going to be a specific buyer,” he said.

The property was one of 596 scheduled to go to auction in Melbourne this week, quieter than usual due to the long weekend. By evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 59 per cent from 415 reported results throughout the week, while 61 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.

In the south-east, a four-bedroom Endeavour Hills family home sold under the hammer for $811,000, rocketing up more than $100,000 in under two minutes of bidding.

The open-plan, parquet-floored house at 102 Chalcott Drive sits on a large block of land and had a price guide of $720,000 to $770,000.

Ray White Dandenong agent Mo Zeitouneh said the bidding started at $700,000, with four bidders pushing past the $765,000 reserve in $20,000 increments until it hit $800,000.

From there, he said, aggressive $1000 and $3000 increments took it to the final bid.

“The actual auction itself probably went for a minute and 30,” he said.

Zeitouneh said the buyers lived in neighbouring Dandenong and were first home buyers. The vendors had two small children and were upsizing to prepare for the family to grow.

He said he believed the low price guide, due to its small land size, had made the property popular.

“The backyard had been cut off, sold and established as a townhouse. So it was essentially a full-size home on a cottage block,” he said.

In Wheelers Hill, a four-bedroom home sold at auction for $1.39 million, 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 smaller $2000 and $3000 increments, before the hammer came down, she said.

“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 the long weekend, and not many auctions to compete with, helped the house draw a large crowd, and a number of families ready to bid.

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.

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.”