A THREE-bedroom house in need of a major makeover at Eleebana was among the auctions scheduled across the weekend in Newcastle and Lake Macquarie.
Overall, there were 27 auctions scheduled in the region during the week ending April 30 which recorded a clearance rate of 55 per cent, according to CoreLogic's preliminary results.
At the time of publication, there were 24 auctions set to be held in Newcastle and Lake Macquarie this week.
The property at 33 Glad Gunson Drive, Eleebana attracted 11 registered bidders including a mix of buyers on-site and online who kicked the auction off with an opening bid of $560,000.
The brick and tile home went on to sell under the hammer for $769,000 with Century 21 Carkeet Johns Smith Charlestown's Shane Smith and Cameron Fitchett.
Mr Smith said the property was in need of extensive renovation work both internally and externally.
"It needs a lot of work but mainly cosmetic [work] internally," the agent said.
"It was the yard and pool that really needed significant work, but the reason it attracted interest was that people could see the potential in the property.
"People could see that the house itself was pretty good."
He said the auction drew a mix of first-home buyers and people looking to renovate the home which is positioned on a 505 square metre block.
"It hit that first-home buyer price demographic," he said.
At the other end of the scale, an absolute waterfront property at 22 Skye Point Road was sold after negotiations at auction, selling for $2.43 million with Anthony Birt from Global Property.
The five-bedroom, three-bathroom home was purchased by a Sydney buyer who plans to relocate to the area and undertake extensive renovations to the property.
Mr Birt said the property's lakefront location drew solid interest throughout the campaign with around 80 enquiries received.
"We had around 30 potential buyers through the door which in that $2 to $3 million range is fairly good numbers," Mr Birt said.
"It is a bit of a limited market for that sort of thing though because the property is in a brilliant spot and has a jetty on absolute waterfront but the house was pretty original and needed a lot of work so it needed someone who was willing to put some money and TLC into it."
There were three registered bidders at the auction on Saturday with two of those actively bidding before it stalled at $2.43 million.
It was eventually sold on auction day by negotiation at that price.
"It was a fairly strong price for something in that area that needed a lot of work," the agent said.
"The buyers were looking for prestige property in a prestige location. The plan for them is to do fairly major works on it."
This property at 5 Channel Street, Swansea sold under the hammer for $2.56 million on Saturday.
A Sydneysider snapped it up after going head-to-head with another buyer from Sydney, according to First National Real Estate Swansea listing agent Andrew McGrath.
"We had been quoting $2.5 million but with auctions being auctions, anything could happen on the day," Mr McGrath said.
"It could have stalled at $2.1 million or $2.2 million but no, it was a good result of $2.56 million."
Also at Eleebana, a four-bedroom, two-bathroom home with a pool on 767 square metres at 52 Glad Gunson Drive, Eleebana sold at auction on Saturday.
Listed with an auction guide of $1,050,000, three bidders registered to purchase the property which sold under the hammer for $1.18 million with Anthony Di Nardo and Jackson Morgan from Belle Property.
In Charlestown, Wilton Lemke Stewart listing agent Jesse Wilton took a renovated three-bedroom, one-bathroom house to auction at 3 Creswell Avenue on Saturday.
Listed with a guide of $795,000 to $850,000, the home sold under the hammer just above the upper end of the guide for $855,000 to a buyer from Newcastle.
"We had four registered bidders. It was a great result," Mr Wilton said.
A modern four-bedroom, three-bathroom home offering 180-degree views across Lake Macquarie at 7 Rani Close, Speers Point was scheduled to go to auction on Saturday but it was sold prior for an undisclosed sum.
However, Belle Property selling agent Anthony Di Nardo said it set a street record and was also the highest sale price in the suburb this year.
The previous highest sale on Rani Close was $1.65 million paid for the house at Number 17 in July 2020.
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