Family pays $2.625m for ‘iconic’ inner west house at auction

An upsizing local family paid $2,625,000 for a grand Stanmore house at auction on Saturday, beating two other bidders who were both builders.

The four-bedroom house at 135 Albany Road was built in circa 1894 in a late Victorian Italianate style and came with period features such as decorative ceilings and fireplaces and leadlight details.

The property was one of 726 scheduled to go to auction in Sydney last week. By Saturday evening, Domain recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 57 per cent from 425 reported results throughout the week, while 131 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.

The early read is just higher than last week’s preliminary result of 54 per cent, albeit it is likely to be revised lower as more results are collected. Any result below 60 per cent shows prices are likely to keep falling.

The Stanmore house was a deceased estate on offer for the first time in 70 years, with a price guide of $2.3 million to $2.5 million, and attracted three registered bidders at auction.

Bidding opened at $2 million and rose in increments of $50,000 at first, then slowed around $2.4 million. It surpassed the reserve of $2.55 million by $75,000.

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

Belle Property Glebe selling agent Mark Tooth said the family who bought the home will do a renovation. He described it as an “iconic house”.

“Amazing house, it has only had two owners in the last 100 years, it was a real time capsule,” he said.

Speaking about the market broadly, he felt there were more homes for sale privately now than via auction, but said buyers and sellers still needed to go ahead and decisions such as if they received an inheritance or in cases of family separation.

“Everything sells a) if you have interest and b) if the price is right,” he said.

In Ultimo, a couple bought a two-bedroom apartment for its reserve price of $840,000 in post-auction negotiations.

The home at 23/23-33 Macarthur Street came with a covered al fresco terrace, a breakfast bar in the kitchen and an internal laundry. It had a price guide of $830,000.

Two parties registered and one made an opening bid of $800,000. But with no further bids forthcoming, the property was passed in and negotiations commenced with the two potential buyers.