Auction results from around the grounds

THE RAY White network just recorded its best Australasian preliminary auction clearance for some time with 53 per cent of its 221 auctions last week selling under the hammer. Our Victorian members achieved a great 61 per cent preliminary auction clearance with 90 auctions scheduled.

Nearly 11,000 people attended a Ray White auction across Australasia which means more than 100,000 people have attended a Ray White auction now since July 1. On average we have 3.1 registered bidders per auction and our average crowd size is more than 32 people - so things are definitely warming up across Australia and New Zealand.

IT WAS an emotional farewell in Drummoyne for the vendors of 60 Dening St, who watched their family home of nearly 60 years sell under the hammer for $2.065 million on Saturday. In what is a sure sign of how hard it is to get people to bid at auction, auctioneer Peter Matthews kicked off proceedings by offering the first bidder a bottle of champagne. A young lady was the recipient thanks to an opening bid of $1.65 million, as she battled it out against five others who actively participated. Bids of $50,000, $25,000 and $10,000 came in quickly from all over the backyard, with the auction slowing near the end before selling.

The two-bedroom brick home was purchased by the vendor’s father for around £4000 when he came to Australia from Italy alone to start a new life.

Ray White Drummoyne principal Chris Wilkins was featured on Sky News ahead of the successful auction.

Last purchased in 2004 for $542,000, the real estate agent owner of a Wavell Heights home will buy locally again after the auction sale of 57 Highcrest Ave at 9am yesterday.

Ray White Albion principal David Treloar said three of four registered bidders put their hand up to buy the property as about 60 people watched on.

He said it sold for $880,000 to a couple who had just moved to Brisbane. “They’re currently renting in Kedron after recently moving to Brisbane,” Mr Treloar said.

A heavily pregnant buyer delivered the auction sale of a hotly contested family home in Gumdale in Brisbane’s east on Saturday.

Five bidders, including only two who had registered, vied for the five-bedroom property, which sold under the hammer for $1.35 million. The “fast-paced” auction was Brisbane’s highest reported sale price at the weekend.

Only 43 per cent of 105 listed weekend auctions were cleared. The Gumdale auction started at 10.30am and was over by 10.55am, Deanna Rudd, of Ray White Wynnum/Manly, reported.

Bidding jumped by $50,000 and $25,000 increments from a starting bid of $1 million.

There had been “keen interest” from a registered phone bidder from Sydney, who had a private viewing and planned to relocate to Brisbane if successful.

But, in the end, the double-storey home on a flat 1114-square-metre block opposite park reserve was bought by a local couple with a toddler and with another child due in about 10 weeks.

The pregnant buyer is a doctor “so a home birth is completely possible”, the agent quipped.

The buyer couple had attended the property’s first open house in August and were “getting a bit frustrated” given the imminent arrival of their second child and the fatigue of inspecting listed properties on Saturdays.

“It was a big block, had a pool and this large family area looking out to the gardens so was very appealing to our buyers who liked the idea of watching their children playing downstairs while having this separation of the bedrooms upstairs,” Rudd said.

“The bidding went pretty quickly, jumping up to $1.1 million, $1.2 million before we got to $1.3 million, $1.325 million and the final bid of $1.35 million. “You don’t have many auctions like this in Queensland. It was really more like a Sydney auction,” she said.