No genuine bids for swish bayside home asking $2.2m at auction

A swish renovated bungalow in Parkdale passed in at auction on Saturday without receiving a genuine bid, highlighting Melbourne’s sluggish auction market.

The four-bedroom home at 44 Sixth Street features updated interiors behind its period facade, an entertaining deck, heated pool with water feature and a poolside cabana.

The property was one of 570 scheduled to go to auction in Melbourne last week. By Saturday evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 57 per cent from 392 reported results throughout the week, while 61 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.

The Parkdale home was listed with a price guide of $2 million to $2.2 million. Two bidders, both upsizers from out of the area, showed up to the auction but neither raised their hands.

A vendor bid was placed at $2.1 million but with no further offers, the home passed in and went to negotiations with one party.

The reserve was $2.2 million and the home is now advertised for private sale at that price.

Buxton Real Estate Mentone selling agent Mathew Cox said one party was still arranging finance while the other wanted to get a building inspection. It had become more common for buyers to ask for conditional sales, he said.

“The market is still pretty healthy, good properties priced well, priced properly are still selling,” he said.

Cox said the home was close to sought-after schools such as Mentone Grammar, Mentone Girls’ Grammar and Parkdale Secondary College.

“Parkdale is not a place that everybody has heard of before but once they come there, you go ‘wow’, it is a suburb that has a lot to offer,” he said, and added that out-of-area buyers were attracted to the beachside neighbourhood. “There is a real coastal cool in Parkdale.”

In Fitzroy North, a two-bedroom Victorian terrace at 831 Brunswick Street North sold under the hammer for $1.41 million after three bidders – all young couples – competed.

It sold above the price guide of between $1.2 million to $1.32 million, and the $1.35 million reserve.

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

Bidding on the property opened at $1.2 million with $10,000 offers until the price reached $1.38 million. Offers then dropped to $5000 increments and a final $5000 offer sealed the deal.