Brexit fails to hurt Aussie property market
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An outer Melbourne property, once the home of underworld wife Roberta Williams during the height of gangland war in the early 2000s, failed to sell at weekend auction.
With its notorious past now long behind it, 20 John Paul Drive, Hillside was marketed as a big family home.
The top bid was $610,000 when passed in to a young couple.
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Before the auction, the listing agents said they thought its prior link to Ms Williams, the former wife of late crime figure Carl Williams, could give it a boost.
It came with price expectations of more than $590,000 through the Barry Plant agency.
The property sold for $280,000 in 2000 to the Williams clan and then to the current owners for $450,000 in October 2003.
Its crime past may be history, but agents hoped it would aid the sale. Photo: Supplied
Dhakota Williams, daughter of Carl, was raised at the property. Photo: Supplied
Roberta Williams had Dhakota, her only child with the drug trafficker Carl, in 2001 while she owned the house.
Carl Anthony Williams, who died in jail in 2010, was arrested in 2004 and convicted in 2007 of several gangland murders.
The five-bedroom house is larger than most in the Hillside area where the median is $470,000, according to CoreLogic.
No Brexit fallout
The Brexit decision had zero impact with Saturday auction clearance rates continuing steady or improved conditions across the major auction cities.
Melbourne’s cheapest sale was a two bedroom apartment at 7/40-42 Hemmings Street in Dandenong, which fetched $168,000 through Barry Plant in a pre-auction deal. It leases at $260 a week. It previously sold at $56,000 in 1997 and $113,000 in 2003.
The Victorian capital’s top sale was $3,065,000 when an original three-bedroom house on the Aspendale beachfront sold after its weekend auction.
The redevelopment block of 570 square metres at 34 Bowman Street had been passed in at $2,945,000 by the RT Edgar auctioneer.
Location, location … A million-dollar view of Melbourne’s Aspendale beach. Photo: Supplied
Imagine waking up to this. Photo: Supplied
The 1970s classic single storey house came with approved plans for a luxurious view-filled five-bedroom, four-bathroom home, designed by Wolveridge Architects.
The beachfront had sold last at 2014 auction for $2.65 million, when offered at $1.9 million plus.
The price guidance this time was $2.7 million to $2.97 million. The street’s top sale sits at $3.65 million since mid last year for a 2004-built home.
Kirribilli tops the nation
The nation’s top sale was in Kirribilli, when Michael and Louise Tang, who operate supermarkets in Papua New Guinea, put their nearby terrace to by invitation-only auction yesterday.
There’s been no formal price disclosure, excepting the Willoughby Road sold for somewhere within its price guide of $8.75 million to $9.25 million to north shore buyers.
The property boats five bedrooms and guest suite. Photo: Supplied
It’s a million-dollar neighbourhood. Photo: Supplied
There were three registered bidders when auctioned through Belle Property. Kirribilli’s median house price sits at around $3.3 million.
Last traded at $2.55 million in 2000, the renovated five-bedroom, four-bathroom property has a library, guest suite, media room. There’s a north-facing rear garden and a pool.
Meanwhile, Beenleigh, the fringe Brisbane to Gold Coast locality, was again the location of the nation’s cheapest sale.
Some $231,000 was paid for a two bedroom 90 sqm Hawthorne Street unit last sold at $295,000 in 2009, at the height of the first home buyers’ frenzy in the Logan district.
There were two registered bidders, both investors, who were excepting $285 a week tenants attracted by new carpets.
Property market holding steady
Melbourne hosted around 1,025 auctions, down from 1,085 last weekend, but higher than the 1,007 held one year ago, according to CoreLogic.
The initial results reflected a 68 per cent success rate, signifying the third week in a row where Melbourne’s clearance rate sat below 70 per cent.
Sales included a warehouse offering sold to a buyer who flew in from Singapore to snap up an undeveloped Fitzroy North warehouse at auction. The 6A/1 Bik Lane offering sold for $1.216 million, just over its $1.1 million reserve set by the artist Polly Courtin who’d been there a decade. There were three registered bidders.
The 120sq m building space boasted ceilings high enough to fit three storeys inside, the Nelson Alexander marketing suggested.
A diamond in the rough. Photo: Supplied
This novel property was the brainchild of a Melbourne artist. Photo: Supplied
Sydney’s 77 per cent success rate was higher than the 73 per cent in the prior weekend, but lower than the 82 percent of one year ago.
For the tenth week in a row, Sydney recorded a clearance rate in excess of 70 per cent.
Brisbane 171 auctions secured a 48 per cent initial clearance rate, compared to 45 per cent last week and 46 per cent one year ago.
Adelaide’s clearance rate remains in the 60s, with 89 auctions securing a 67 per cent success rate.
There were 42 Perth auctions held this week, with a fall in the weekly clearance rate, to 28 per cent, from 31.9 per cent from last week.
Canberra’s clearance rate rose this week, up from 61 per cent last week to 64 per cent this weekend.
Overall the national auction clearance rate sat 69 per cent, up from 67 per cent last weekend.
The rise represents a further improvement from the recent 65 per cent low over the weekend leading up to the Queen’s birthday public holiday.
Jonathan Chancellor is editor-at-large at Property Observer.