‘Really love it’: First home buyers win keys to $1.04m north-west home

A first home buyer couple’s search for the perfect home ended after they placed the winning bid of $1.04 million on a family house in Keilor East in Melbourne’s outer north-west.

The three-bedroom house at 86 Prospect Drive was listed with a price guide of $900,000 to $990,000 and a reserve price of $1.03 million.

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

The property was one of 1781 scheduled to go to auction in Melbourne this week. By evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 59 per cent from 1302 reported results throughout the week, while 187 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance ra

Auctioneer Aaron Leask asked for an opening bid of $890,000, which was quickly met by the first bidder and countered by the second.

The third bidder entered at the $980,000 mark, after which the auction progressed in increments of $10,000, $5000, $2500 and $1000 until a young couple in their mid-20s placed the winning bid.

The couple, who came with their parents and didn’t provide their names, said they had been looking since August for the perfect property, and had bid unsuccessfully four times before securing this home.

“We just really love it,” the man said.

Raso Real Estate agent Luke Raso said all bidders were young families hoping to get into the area.

“This pocket of Keilor provides really good value ... this is affordable for the young families to get into because they seem to get priced out on the East Keilor side which borders Niddrie and Essendon.”

Raso added buyers were more cautious at the moment.

“They’re setting their limits, and I’m noticing auctions aren’t blowing right above.

In Bentleigh East, south-east of Melbourne’s CBD, a four-bedroom townhouse sold under the hammer for $1,421,000 to a first home buyer.

Jellis Craig Bentleigh agent and auctioneer Nick Renna said the property at 15a Yaralla Road, guided at $1.25 million to $1.35 million, attracted three bidders – a first home buyer, a young couple and a family. The reserve was $1.38 million.

After an opening bid of $1.25 million, the bidding came quickly before slowing down to $1000 increments.

Commenting on the market, Renna said until recently, buyers had been spoilt for choice.

“But coming into April, there’s not much stock going on … we are telling buyers what is coming, which will be a bit of a shortage.”

Earlier, a two-bedroom apartment in St Kilda sold for $130,000 above reserve following a bidding war between seven first home buyers.

The unit at 5/232 Barkly Street, guided at $650,000 to $700,000 and featuring separate living and dining areas and two bathrooms, sold for $830,000 to a young, first home buyer couple. The property’s reserve was $700,000.

Woodards Elsternwick lead agent Sean Rice said that after an opening bid of $680,000, the auction went off, with seven parties bidding in increments of $10,000, $5000 and $2500.

“The home went to a lovely young first home buyer couple … and the underbidder was a parent bidding on behalf of a daughter,” Rice said.

Despite global uncertainty, Rice said that “good real estate sells under competition”.

“There is certainly confidence out there in the community, and most definitely people want to put their hard work and money towards the right property,” he said.

In Footscray, in the inner west, a local buyer’s agent pushed the price of a single-fronted period house to $1.05 million – a price over the vendor’s reserve of $935,000.

The two-bedroom house at 25 Nicholson Street, featuring a large backyard with brick paving and garden, was guided at $850,000 to $935,000, said Jas Stephens lead agent and auctioneer John Galea.

Four bidders – three young couples and the buyer’s advocate, who was representing “a gentleman in his 50s” – competed for the home at the rainy morning auction.

“[At the end] there were tears of joy from both the owner and the buyers, a beautiful couple who bought it as their first home,” Galea said.

The vendor, who had bought the house in her 20s, was selling it to fund the renovation of a bluestone home in Williamstown.

“It was a very emotional sale for her,” Galea said. “She bought the home as a young lady … it represented her independence.”

He said the crowd was “intimate” and serious rather than exploratory.

“Usually, we see a lot of people attending auctions just for market research, but they weren’t there today,” he said. “It was strictly serious buyers who were already known to our business.

“The result was much stronger than we expected, but the lack of spectators is something I’ll be interested to monitor in the coming weeks.”