5 Farm Street, Speers Point
Local buyers came out in force at the auction of a renovated two-storey home at Speers Point on Thursday.
Selling agent Cameron Stevenson from LJ Hooker Toronto gave us the lowdown on how the auction unfolded.
The property: A renovated 1950s cottage on a large 916 square metre block that was transformed into a modern, coastal home. The house featured four bedrooms, two bathrooms and a large outdoor entertaining area with a built-in barbecue and a suspended pool surrounded by a deck with views across Lake Macquarie. The home included high ceilings, hybrid timber flooring and an open-plan design with stacker doors and a deluxe kitchen with stone benchtops.
The property last changed hands in January 2020 for $757,000 according to CoreLogic before undergoing renovations.
The result: The property sold for $2,225,000 under the hammer.
How many registered bidders? We had seven registered bidders but it came down to two parties that really drove it.
Where were the buyers from? Every buyer in the room, all seven, was local. A couple had moved to Newcastle in the last year or two. The buyer was from Wallsend and the under bidder was from Speers Point, so there is a lot of local money around at the moment. We're not seeing anywhere near the same amount of people from Sydney or other parts of the state buying at the moment.
What made this property special? It was a renovated home but they kept a very small portion of the old house. It is officially classified as a renovation but it was basically a brand-new house. The vendors bought it about two years ago and completed a massive renovation. The view is beautiful and the block was 916 square meters, so you had a great view and a big land holding. There was also rear access and the finishes in the home were stunning. It had all the key ingredients for a property that appealed to buyers. It was architecturally designed and had beautiful tones. It was light and bright and everything they did is currently very in vogue.
Can you set the scene at the auction? We had a reserve price and if we got over the $2 million mark, the vendors were definitely going to be happy to sell the property. We had a really good bid off the bat of $1.9 million. Once we got hit with that we knew we were on point. We had expected that the buyer that purchased it would be successful. It was competitive and we had multiple parties bidding but really it came down to two buyers that really drove it.
How did the bidding unfold? It was really strong with really good increments early. There were lots of bidding in $50,000 increments. It started to slow down once we got north of $2.15 million and then it started to slow up a bit more.
Was the result a surprise? No, not from my perspective. I had anticipated $2.2 million and it ended up exceeding that which was great. We had an offer of $1.9 million throughout the campaign so we had an idea of what we could achieve.
