It was standing room only as more than $30 million worth of property sold under the hammer on a night to out bid any other auction night this selling season.
“They were packed in like sardines, it was a really great night and crowd. There definitely was a buzz in the room,” said Damien Cooley of Cooley Auctions.
More than 250 prospective bidders and keen onlookers descended on the Domain Auction House in Double Bay, a new venue for Cooley Auctions which only opened its doors last month.
Cooley said the evening started off with a bang.
“If you’d been there to see the first 10 properties auctioned, and then you left, you would have thought ‘Oh my God, the market’s on fire!’ but by the end there was more subdued bidding,” he said.
“There were some pretty intense bidding duels on the night with some buyers keen to secure the property they wanted at any cost,” Cooley added.
Cooley originally had 30 scheduled homes to sell on Monday, March 26 however due to several prior sales – no doubt fuelled by a pre-Easter fear of missing out – 20 homes were auctioned. The final sum was an outstanding $32.446 million sold in one evening.
“There were some really good quality properties up on the night with really strong results that were consistent with the overall market. At the end of the night our clearance rate was 60 per cent and similarly on the previous Saturday, out of 103 properties, the rate was 58 per cent,” he said.
One stand out sale in Bondi ended up going for an impressive $12.9 million. The grand five-bedroom 1980s clifftop residence on 538sq m at 19 Wilga Ave, Bondi was listed by Ric Serrao & Paul Langsam of Raine & Horne Double Bay.
A total of 18 different real estate agencies entrusted Cooley with their listings and the decision more than paid off with the average amount over the set reserve sitting at $276,333 per property, or 11 per cent above expectations. There were 57 registrations in all with an average of three bidders per property.
Another sale of note at the Monday in-room auction event included 7 Baker St, Kensington, a four-bedroom home listed with Belle Property Bondi Junction agent Stella Gankin. The renovated property on 506sq m sold for $2.7 million. And a renovated terrace at 12A Beaumont St, Rose Bay listed with Warren Davis of Bradfield Cleary was snapped up for $2.4 million.