An inner-city Newcastle apartment bought around the peak of the market in 2022 has sold at a loss, despite drawing four registered bidders at auction.
The three-bedroom, two-bathroom property at 64/7 King Street, located in the Mirvac-built The Royal complex, was originally listed in January with Darren Penn of Ray White Newcastle Lake Macquarie.
The campaign was temporarily paused when the owner, retired Ray White Newcastle managing director Neil Follington, moved overseas.
Relaunched with a price guide of $3.75 million to $4 million, the auction drew four registered parties, with the bidding dominated by a buyer's agent acting on behalf of a couple from Sydney.
"The opening bid was $3.5 million and it sold for an undisclosed price just under the guide," Mr Penn said.
"There was only bidding from one person and they wanted to buy it and made that pretty clear, and they did everything they needed to do to buy it.
"There was quite a lot of negotiation back and forth to come up with a compromise where everyone could move forward."
The 12th-floor McCaffrey wing apartment features a north-easterly aspect with views of Nobbys Headland, the city, and the ocean.
Over the course of the campaign, it drew 116 inquiries, 46 inspections, and two pre-auction offers.
Cotality records show Mr Follington bought the unit for $4 million in July 2022, nine months after selling his heritage-listed Merewether estate, 'Barrymore', for a then-record $8.7 million.
He has since relocated to France after buying a run-down villa that he plans to restore.
"He bought this property in 2022 at the peak of the market and I think he really wanted it, to be fair, and probably paid a premium to get it," Mr Penn said.
"They don't come up very often in that building in that location, so he jumped on that opportunity as a result."
Mr Penn said high-end property buyers enlisting buyers' agents is a growing trend.
"I am noticing a higher activity of buyer's agents handling the negotiations for potential buyers in the higher price brackets," he said.
"Especially when it comes to apartments, there is a fair bit of due diligence required and some experience in that is passed over to the buyer's agent to help them.
"The buyer's agents that I dealt with on this one were all experienced and professional - they did all the right things and put their client in a position to buy."
The Royal is one of Newcastle's most sought-after apartment complexes.
A penthouse in the building set a record in November 2023 when Hunter Valley winemaker Michael Hope bought it for $8.5 million.
The property has since returned to the market with an $8.5 million to $9.3 million guide.
Also in Newcastle, two-bedroom unit on the ground floor in the Segenhoe building at 2/50 Wolfe Street went to auction with Spillane Property's Donna Spillane and Patrick Skinner.
Two registered parties competed to secure the unit in the circa 1936 art deco building which was designed by renowned Sydney architect, Emil Sodersten.
Listed with a guide of $900,000, the auction opened at $700,000 and the property was sold after 14 bids for $915,000.
According to Cotality, the unit previously changed hands in 2019 for $595,000.
In Lake Macquarie, a four-bedroom house positioned 70 metres from the water's edge at 20 Wrexham Circlet, Buttaba, sold at auction with Sarah Bennett of Belle Property.
The auction had just one registered bidder.
After going into negotiations, the property was sold under the hammer for $1.235 million to a couple from Sydney.
"We are still seeing very strong interest from Sydney," Ms Bennett said.
"It's been about 50/50 between local and Sydney buyers looking around the lake and out of the three we were initially expecting at the auction, all were from Sydney."
The two-storey house was offered to market for the first time since the owners bought it for $125,000 in 1994.
"It was a very emotional sale," she said.
"They grew up in the street and in that home, so it was a big decision to let it go."
